If I may comment on the latter, on the decline in coal production, it is palpable how it has affected the economy in B.C., and not only the direct extraction activities of companies like Teck resources. Teck is one of the biggest mining companies in Canada, and they have had to cut shifts at many of their mines, if not most of their mines, over the last couple of years. It has had a really direct impact in the regions of the province where there is extraction activity taking place at their mine sites.
It has also had a direct impact on activity at the port of Vancouver, which is Canada's largest port and the second largest port on the west coast of North America. It is a real job generator. Coal shipment volumes are down quite sharply at the port of Vancouver, so it has had a fairly profound impact.
One of the things we are engaged in right now is a bit of a dialogue with some of the mining companies over the extent to which they are able to introduce small and medium-sized enterprises into their supply chains. That is one of the ways that.... Even in a declining price environment, and sometimes even more so in a declining price environment, companies like Teck or Goldcorp have a real incentive to become more efficient, and the small and medium-sized enterprises that contribute to that high-technology sector in B.C. can be really positive contributors to innovation in mining.
It is not true that.... People sometimes criticize the mining sector that it is not innovative and risk-taking. It is extremely risk-taking. When you open a mine, you are making a bet. You are going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on something that isn't going to produce a dime of revenue for 10 years, usually, so they are used to taking risks. The problem is when the risks associated with innovation come on top of that basic risk they face.
We have engaged in a series of dialogues with some of Canada's major mining companies about what kinds of barriers and obstacles small businesses face in accessing those supply chains, and what things we could do perhaps to change some of the policies and programs we have in place to better address that and to get them into a position where the private sector will actually take on the role of demand for innovation.
Around the energy projects, as I pointed out, there is—