Natural Resources committee  It will be a significant challenge for the years to come for the mining industry to recruit workers, especially with the boom we're going through. We don't have a specific mandate to deal with that question, but I can make two points quickly. That's part of the current debate,

Natural Resources committee  It must be understood that we're talking about improving the current regime with the minimum of the gross value. So we can easily get, for last year, for example, $200 million or $300 million more. We also say that a range of 3 to 8% should be considered. This is one example, t

Natural Resources committee  If I remember well, in March 2011, the Auditor General of Quebec tabled a report consisting of several chapters. The one that attracted attention was the one on shale gas. However, another chapter dealt with environmental monitoring by the ministère du Développement durable, de l

Natural Resources committee  I don't have any data for the federal Department of the Environment. However, I imagine the tendency is the same, particularly in recent years.

Natural Resources committee  The question is for me, I think?

Natural Resources committee  I think that one of the concerns rightly expressed by the population concerns the long-term management of mine tailings. Every mine, including uranium mines and metal mines in general, generates tailings in large quantities. Typically, metal and uranium ore—depending on the depos

Natural Resources committee  You want me to take the environmental point of view mainly?

Natural Resources committee  I would direct you to a report that we produced in November 2009, which is available on our Web site: www.quebecmeilleuremine.org. This report, which was prepared with Ecojustice, includes some 25 recommendations, which I haven't listed for you today. I could, however, summarize

Natural Resources committee  At present, it happens in a voluntary and somewhat anarchical fashion. We allow businesses to judge for themselves the risks with regard to a given area. We also leave it up to them to establish a relationship with the aboriginal community and get along or not with this community

Natural Resources committee  A distinction has to be made between mining exploration, and exploitation and development of a new mine. Let's talk first about private investment in mining exploration in northern Quebec. More specifically, for 2010, investments in exploration in Quebec amounted to about $576

Natural Resources committee  One of the big problems is the enforcement of laws and regulations that already exist, and the follow-up and monitoring of their enforcement. Before talking about tightening regulations, it might be better to tighten up follow-up and monitoring of the laws and regulations that al

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that's what the Australian governments do.

Natural Resources committee  To our knowledge, no. Australia is one of the great mining countries of the world, like Canada. They are probably the two largest mining countries in the world. Investments are booming. Australia is experiencing the same boom as we are these days. In Australia, the rate is betw

Natural Resources committee  I don't know the measure you're talking about. However, for the Coalition Pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine, it seems important to have a crown corporation or a collective intelligence that can target appropriate projects, gather this wealth and redistribute it throughout the

Natural Resources committee  To my knowledge there have been none. Certainly there may have been, from the 1940s to the 1950s, under schedule 2, which I believe you're referring to. It's highly controversial, as well, in the communities we're working with.