There are many different things to say here, so I'll try to stay focused.
First, I'll just mention that the person heading up De Beers in Botswana is a Canadian, Jim Gowans, our former chair.
Botswana is, unfortunately, an exception within Africa: it's one of the most successful countries there. You're right: it's an example of where the resource curse hasn't happened at all. It has been a very successful country, but there are other examples of mineral-rich countries.... Chile is now part of the OECD, and it's largely because of its mineral resources that it has lifted itself up now, post-Pinochet, to become a really successful emerging economy.
So minerals do not.... I think the point was made earlier by Karin. There's tremendous wealth under the ground. Used right and implemented right, with good governance, it can help countries achieve lasting prosperity and build the kinds of governance systems and educational systems and so on that will allow this to continue in the long term and not just be something that's passing.
What I found really interesting about this whole debate over CIDA's funding on what is.... I mean, it's a shift, but let's put it into perspective. In the history of CIDA, there are three projects, I think, that have involved the private sector, or certainly the mining sector. But what this reminded me of is the programs we have here that involve aboriginal communities and job training. There are many across the country that involve our sector. On these mine training associations, there's one in B.C. that I'm very familiar with, and one in Yellowknife. There has been one associated with Voisey's Bay.
These are projects where mining companies, governments, educational institutions, and first nations communities come together around the table and design initiatives to help make first nations people job-ready. Often it includes getting them their grade 12 and providing them with the skill sets to be able to get jobs, and then providing them with a guaranteed job and getting them working.
They've been hugely successful here, and I see what IAMGOLD is doing in Burkina Faso, and I'm saying it's the same model, more or less, of what's going on here. You have partners bringing their own skill sets and their own expertise and collaborating to create opportunities for the local people in the area, who may end up going to work directly for the mines or for businesses that support the mines or that support businesses that support the businesses that support the mines. From there on, it just generates.
If you look at the Northwest Territories now, you'll see aboriginal-owned businesses there that have done well over a billion dollars in business with the diamond mines in the north. They are now servicing mines well beyond their borders and in some cases are starting to get international contracts. That is really enduring and lasting economic development. I see these projects as very much fitting in with that model.