Yes, absolutely.
MAC recently was working with CanNor to identify how many projects are in the northern projects management office pipeline and what their remoteness is. If I remember the numbers correctly, I believe that 13 of the 22 projects listed in that registry were without access to an all-season road. Some of those expansion projects are mines that are currently operating at significantly higher costs and will have shorter mine lives because they don't have access to the infrastructure that you mention.
Infrastructure is critical in the north for a couple of reasons. MAC did a study in partnership with other industry organizations about quantifying what the cost differential is between doing mining in the south versus doing mining in the north. Our research suggests that it is two to two and a half times more expensive to build the same mine off-grid in the north than it would be in a centrally located jurisdiction in southern Canada.
Seventy per cent of that cost differential is attributed exclusively to the infrastructure deficit. Acknowledging that mining is the largest private sector employer of Canadians and indigenous Canadians in the north, there is a significant opportunity to enhance social and economic development by stimulating mineral investment into the territories, and not just the territories, but also the near north and the northern regions of the provinces.