Related to that, perhaps there's an opportunity for investment in knowledge infrastructure, and on that one I'd like to recommend further investment in the Geological Survey of Canada.
We have two other recommendations.
The first one is for tax cuts. We've had something called the mineral exploration tax credit here in Canada since 2000. No matter the government, every year it's been recommended that it go forward and be maintained. So the proposal today is that we make it a permanent fixture of our tax credit system here in Canada to maintain our competitiveness with Australia and other jurisdictions. So our primary recommendation is to maintain the METC and make it permanent. In terms of specifics, it could perhaps move from a 15% rate to a 30% rate. That's in support of PDAC, our national body representing explorers and developers.
The other main recommendation, or third overall, relates to harmonization. Canada and the Province of British Columbia, for instance, are challenged to harmonize the environmental assessments, the permitting process for new mines. What we'd like to see is a concerted effort with respect to delegation of authority or work from the federal government to the province, perhaps a devolution of decision-making to the province from the federal government, and going forward, perhaps an amendment to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act that would include timelines one way or another to address the fact that these projects are stalled and that it takes many, many years to get billions of dollars' worth of projects into operation, which is unnecessary and inefficient. This isn't about effectiveness; this is about it being efficient.
With that, I'd like to thank the committee and members of Parliament.