Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you as well for the invitation.
I want to use my five minutes to just quickly highlight two figures from the “Facts and Figures 2010” document. You each have a copy en français et en anglais.
Page 9 shows the distribution of the industry clusters across Canada. As you can see from the map, the industry is very strong in all regions of the country: nickel in Newfoundland and Labrador; base metals in Quebec; base metals in Ontario; a lot of gold in Quebec; base metals in Manitoba; uranium and potash in Saskatchewan; oil sands in Alberta; base metals and metallurgical coal in British Columbia; and a lot of diamond activity in the northern territories. It's a very diversified and strong industry across the country.
It employs anywhere from 300,00 to 350,000 Canadians, depending on the state of the economy, and it pays anywhere from $6 billion to $12 billion per year to governments in the form of taxes and royalties, again depending on the state of world mineral prices.
More importantly, perhaps, it provides business for about 3,200 companies that supply goods and services to the industry in Canada. About 3,200 companies supply engineering, environmental services, drilling equipment, and so on. That's important to keep in mind.
The second figure, on page 13, shows the state of proven and probable mineral reserves in Canada, and it shows a fairly troubling picture, which is that the level of Canadian reserves has declined by around one half over the last quarter of a century for copper, nickel, zinc, silver, and so on. That is troubling, because a lot of the other benefits of the industry depend on our having strong levels of mineral reserves in Canada.
We're seeking a couple of things in that regard. One is a continued effort to enhance the investment attractiveness of Canada, and that would include continuing to reduce corporate tax rates to 15% and continuing the super flow-through share provisions of the Income Tax Act. I should add, within the investment attractiveness theme, that we seek the defeat in the coming days of the negative private member's bill, Bill C-300.
We would also seek continued investment in geoscience and geological mapping, especially in northern Canada, where we need to know better what the makeup is in the territories in terms of geological formations. That kind of information is very useful to companies.
On enhanced investment in innovation, there is potential for the government to better support the innovative future of this industry. It's a very technological and innovative industry when you think of some of the processes it goes through to turn rock into 99.99% pure metal.
Finally, I would echo earlier comments about continued support, and in this case, of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council. It's a very effective human resources council and is very useful to our industry in terms of information, research, mentoring, partnerships, and certification. It plays a very useful role and we hope to see enhanced support of that sector council.
I'll wind up there, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.