Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses.
I wanted to ask CPPIB questions with respect to some of your investments here. There's Banro Corporation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You have $351 million in the Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania. There are other investments here, also in the DRC. You have an investment in the Veladero mine in Argentina, where Argentina's national ombudsman called for a halt to the company's operations, and apparently you continue. EDC has money in that and CPP has money in that. In New Guinea, you have considerable investment. And Norway's government pension fund dropped its shares in the company as a result of waste disposal practices. Based on an in-depth analysis of the operations, the pension fund's council on ethics concluded that the investment amounted to an unacceptable risk of the fund contributing to “serious environmental damage”. The council added that the company's assertions that its operations do not cause long-term and irreversible environmental damage carry little credibility.
I was curious, Mr. Raymond, how CPPIB continues to make these investments when others have found these investments to be in breach of various environmental and human rights standards.