Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the presenters today.
I was pleased to see the extension of the mineral exploration tax credit in place. I think all jurisdictions that are trying to attract industry and exploration in their jurisdiction need a number of things. Of course, certainty is one of them. Whether it's through the regulatory process or through the land claims, the self-government process with the indigenous governments, industry wants to see there's stability and their investment is going to be safe.
There's also the cost factor. That's also a big one for us in the north. We are in a very remote part of the country and so we always conclude, whenever we talk to industry, the chamber of mines, the chamber of commerce, that we'd prefer to have investment in transportation infrastructure and airports and those types of big-ticket items that we need, rather than subsidies, but the subsidies to mining companies seem to help. However, we seem to extend it just before it expires, in the last while anyway.
I'm wondering if you could explain what the advantages or the disadvantages are of making the mineral exploration tax credit a permanent measure, instead of a temporary measure, which seems to get included at the last minute. I think maybe there's an impact to industry in how they move forward also, so I'm very curious to see why it's done this way.