Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Easter, members of the committee, and fellow witnesses. My name is Pam Schwann. I am the President of the Saskatchewan Mining Association, and our representatives include industry funded organizations. Our members are mining companies in Saskatchewan and exploration companies active in Saskatchewan.
Thank you for the invitation to present here today asking about what federal activities and measures could be undertaken to assist in the economic growth for Canadians, businesses, and communities throughout Canada. We have six specific measures that we would be looking for. I will name them, and then I will come back to three of them in a bit more detail, time permitting.
The Saskatchewan Mining Association would encourage the federal government to undertake measures that would support building on Saskatchewan's and Canada's natural mineral advantages, and we think more mines would address all three questions. This would also advance the government's priority commitments to improving the socio-economic conditions for indigenous communities and developing a lower carbon intensive economy, given the commodities that Saskatchewan mines.
The are six measures that we are looking at. The first one is establishing a regulatory framework that enables sustainable resource development. The second one is investing in the socio-economic capacity of indigenous communities. The third one is incentivizing investment through taxation tools, such as enhancing access to capital for junior companies through things like the mineral exploration tax credit, and also having tax tools that would incentivize investments in clean technology. The fourth one is ensuring a competitive, reliable, and responsive rail transport system to get products to market. You know that the CTA review report is in, and Minister Garneau is looking at that right now. The fifth one is the promotion of the role of uranium-sourced nuclear power, and carbon capture and sequestration in a low-carbon economy. The sixth one is continuing federal trade missions to emerging markets.
Before I speak on the six measures that I have identified, I would like to address the refrain that we regularly hear about the need to regain public confidence in resources development projects. I felt it was important to let the members of the committee know that public polling data from the 1,000 Saskatchewan residents we've already polled—we're just in a third tranche now, and we've done two already—indicates that nine out of 10 respondents are supportive of the mining industry, including 50% who are strongly supportive and 84% who think the mining industry is very important to Saskatchewan. I do believe we have the public support in Saskatchewan for mining development.
I would like to speak to the measures of the regulatory framework, the measure of investing in socio-economic capacity of indigenous communities, and the promotion of uranium-sourced nuclear power and CCS, if I could.
Establishing a regulatory framework that enables sustainable resource development is the first one. The constant review of federal environmental regulation and legislation, and the increasing involvement in federal regulators in resource development, is contributing to increased investor certainty.
The SMA supports a regulatory framework that is proportional to the environmental risk of a project, which is one that is fair, science-based, and offers clarity and predictability in its process. That's what we're looking for.
The second measure is investing in socio-economic capacity of indigenous communities. I would like to spend some time on this, because mining is one of the few sectors that delivers jobs and economic growth to indigenous people in Canada. Mining helps foster and build economic and social capacity within indigenous communities. This is particularly true in Saskatchewan where there is a decades long constructive relationship with indigenous communities built on pillars of workforce development, business development, community engagement, environmental stewardship, and community investment. Mining provides wealth creation, economic development opportunities, and improved educational outcomes in communities that have systemically high poverty rates, particularly in northern Saskatchewan.
In 2015, 45% of all the northern Saskatchewan mine workers were of first nation or Métis heritage. That's 1,526 individuals. This represents an annual payroll of $107 million. It also means that in that broad geographic, but sparsely populated, region of about 37,000 people, one in five jobs is directly related to mining. In 2015, $388 million, or 41% of all goods and services purchased from mines in northern Saskatchewan, were purchased from first nations and Metis-owned companies, joint ventures, or individuals. Mining operations in southern Saskatchewan have not come as far as the ones in the north, but they have more recently focused their efforts on engaging aboriginal communities as employees and suppliers, and also in building educational and community capacity more locally.
The one budget measure that I would like to speak to is the promotion of the role of uranium-sourced power and CCS in a low-carbon economy, along with the financial incentives to invest in clean technology. The Saskatchewan mining industry can be a primary contributor to the government's priority of addressing climate change by promoting the use of nuclear power sourced by uranium mines from Saskatchewan and the use of CCS. Nuclear power provides 11% of the world's electricity. Saskatchewan has the highest grade uranium mines in the world. Our two mines at McArthur River and Cigar Lake provide 20% of the world's uranium and clean energy for the world by reducing global GHG emissions. Value-added processing of Saskatchewan uranium also occurs in Port Hope and Blind River, Ontario, where it offers high-quality jobs and economic activity. Saskatchewan uranium is also helping Ontario meet it's clean energy plan, as one in two homes in Ontario is fuelled by nuclear energy.
Similarly, coal provides 41% of the world's electricity and will continue to be a primary source of the world's electricity for decades. China continues to invest in thermal coal plants, as well as additional nuclear power generation capacity. Coal fired electrical generation is not going away. Saskatchewan has made significant investments in CCS technology to reduce GHG emissions—not necessarily just in Saskatchewan, but in technology that could be exported. We have a population of just over a million people. Last year the Boundary Dam CCS project took the equivalent of 240,000 vehicles off the road in a population of a million people. That's significant.
Our recommendation is that to facilitate the transition to a lower-carbon economy throughout the world, we need measures to promote and invest in the use of nuclear power and carbon capture sequestration technology, which can be utilized in Canada and exported globally to help mitigate global climate change.
Thank you.