Chair, members of the committee, Clerk, fellow witnesses, my name is Pam Schwann, and I am president of the Saskatchewan Mining Association. Bonjour.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today.
The SMA is the voice of the Saskatchewan exploration and mining industry, representing over 40 member companies and employing over 30,500 people in Saskatchewan. Our mission is to advance a safe, sustainable, and globally competitive mining industry in Saskatchewan that benefits all the residents of the province.
A productive and competitive mining industry, which has underpinned Saskatchewan and Canada's economic successes over generations, can advance Canada's priority commitments of reconciliation with indigenous people, growing the middle class, and developing a lower carbon-intensive economy, all of this while providing revenues to government to support social and infrastructure development across Canada, with the very strong support of the public, as consistently demonstrated by provincial and national surveys, which might be contrary to the perception one gets from social media.
Saskatchewan mines provide over 30% of the world's annual potash consumption, with the world's two highest grade and largest uranium mines providing over 22% of global annual uranium production. Proportionally, mining is the largest private sector employer of indigenous people in Saskatchewan, and has been for over two decades. In northern Saskatchewan the mining operations provide much-needed high-quality and high-paying jobs, with indigenous peoples comprising approximately 48% of the workforce, which is about 1,400 people in northern Saskatchewan, with a direct annual payroll in 2016 of $102 million.
Additionally, indigenous-owned suppliers in northern mines provided over $316 million in goods and services to northern mines in 2016 alone. Since 1991, northern mine operations have paid $7.1 billion to northern employers and northern goods and services suppliers.
I want to repeat that northern Saskatchewan is a severely economically disadvantaged region of the country, very similar to areas of the Northwest Territories, where mining provides very valued employment and business opportunities that can be leveraged to other industries.
We believe mining can advance the government's commitments to the indigenous peoples, middle class, and the lower carbon-intensive economy by the following five recommendations: first, improving the regulatory framework to enable sustainable resource development, particularly with respect to the ongoing environmental assessment reviews and species at risk legislation; second, investing in the socio-economic capacity of indigenous communities; third, incentivizing investment through taxation tools; fourth, enhancing Saskatchewan's and Canada's trade and investment competitiveness; and fifth, promoting the role of Canadian clean energy in a low-carbon economy.
I want to go into some specifics of the first two recommendations, time permitting.
With respect to enabling a stronger regulatory framework that supports resource development, we need to ensure that regulatory agencies and relevant departments have the requisite capacity to perform and carry out responsibilities. We need to ensure that Canada's investment climate is not undermined by unnecessary interjurisdictional conflict and impractical assessment processes. We need to enhance indigenous participation in the role of the federal assessments in a manner that is consistent with Canada's constitutional and legal framework. We need to expeditiously develop and implement approaches to species protection and recovery that are consistent and complementary across federal, provincial, and territorial governments, and that provide a landscape approach rather than a species-by-species approach.
With respect to budget measure two which we've asked about, investing in socio-economic capacity of indigenous communities, as mining operations in Saskatchewan provide real opportunities for careers in economic development opportunities for indigenous communities, it is recommended that budget 2018 invest in and enhance foundational social investments—health, housing, water, education—that will contribute to better outcomes for indigenous people. They are our workforce of tomorrow and our business leaders of tomorrow, and we need to instill investments so they have capacity.
We need to increase funds for skills training and entrepreneurship to assist indigenous peoples in securing opportunities generated by the industry, and we need to allocate dedicated funds to the Canada infrastructure bank to facilitate northern infrastructure development.
With all due respect to the territories, my north is north of 56, not north of 60. There are many remote areas in northern Canada south of the territorial border that need assistance.
Finally, I need to flag my concern as an industry association representative about the legalization of cannabis and public safety, particularly with the timeline for implementation of July 1, 2018, when we don't have adequate testing mechanisms in place to ensure safe workplaces.
The last point I want to make is that we are undergoing a severe and prolonged downturn in both potash and uranium prices. Our companies have done everything they can to control costs. Every new cost right now counts. We just cannot pare down to the bone anymore. I ask you to consider that in your recommendations.
Thank you.