Natural Resources committee  I'll be frank, I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the details of crowdfunding. We haven't done crowdfunding. We've just seen, I guess, in other instances, such as the tech sector...which in a way has a lot of similarities with the exploration sector. It's high-risk risk capital.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  That's a very complicated question, I suppose. One aspect is the direct conversation between the government and the proponent, depending on the jurisdiction because, ultimately, a lot of this goes to the provincial government, so it depends on the region. But just a more active participation on the duty to consult kind of permeating the technical environmental side, where that makes it so the company or the proponent can have a more business-oriented conversation while providing the information to the government and the indigenous group on the regulatory permeating side....

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that would be safe to say. I'm sure you guys have heard it from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada already, and ultimately, generally their interests are aligned with ours.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. I think, ultimately, a lot of the details on the announcement will flow, and we haven't seen those yet, so getting into intricate details would be challenging for me. Ultimately, our business is supplying the clean tech/green tech high technology sector with commodities they need.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I am sorry. I meant the five years was for raw materials production for Avalon specifically. There's another project in Canada that might be on a little more of an advanced timeline. I can't speak to that, though. Yes, we are aware there are some smaller players in Canada versus, let's say, the powerhouses in the battery sector, the LG Cam, Samsung, Tesla, etc.

Natural Resources committee  I'll start with the first part of the question, the differences regionally. I don't think it's necessarily even just regionally; it's sometimes community by community. The capacity levels, the business development levels in some communities are quite strong, and there are some communities that are thriving based on that.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. The flow-through share program is something we make use of very regularly to fund our operations, bottom line. That's one of the ways we raise funding. In a tough capital market, it helps to make it a little bit easier. The mineral exploration tax credit applies more to earlier-stage work, so that would be drilling-type exploration work.

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. I'm sure my fellow witnesses could talk about some of them. A more sector-specific one that we're a member of is the Canadian Rare Earth Element R and D Initiative. We've worked with numerous players from industry, academia, government, and commercial labs, as well as some end-users, on developing technology, clean processing, and environmental regulations surrounding rare earths.

Natural Resources committee  I think it might have been seven, but don't quote me on that.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. As we saw with the announcement from the government yesterday, it's now a huge financial incentive for companies to supply their projects based on clean energy. One of the benefits is that the technology for clean energy and storage is advancing to the point where you can run your operation sustainably and at the large load capacities that were not possible five years ago.

Natural Resources committee  The real issue is that, like a lot of commodity prices, the prices for rare earths are relatively depressed right now. It's a very advanced project. It's one of the most advanced heavy rare earth element projects in the world. We reached feasibility study. We had our environmental assessment.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I think there are two stages to that. As you know, in the Northwest Territories you're negotiating with numerous groups. Their claims vary and the impacts, of course, vary. The reality is that with an impact and benefit agreement, if there are no large impacts, then there's not going to be the benefit at the other side.