Good afternoon, and thank you for the invitation. I'm happy to be here today.
My name is Paul Hébert. I'm vice-president, government relations, at the Mining Association of Canada, or MAC.
MAC is the national voice of Canada's mining and mineral processing industry. Since 1935, we have worked to promote one of Canada's most integral economic sectors. We provide leadership and we share resources, primarily through three activities: advocacy, stewardship, and collaboration.
We promote industry growth and development while addressing the needs of important communities of interest. It's our goal to ensure that success in the mining sector is based on a strong commitment to sustainability and ready access to accurate, up-to-date information for industry members and associates, policy-makers, and the general public.
We believe that a constructive business environment in Canada depends on public understanding of our country's major industries. We represent over 30 members who are engaged in exploration, mining, smelting, refining, and semi-fabrication across a whole host of commodities, including iron ore, gold, diamonds, oil sands, steelmaking, coal, base metals, and uranium.
As you're probably well aware, for the past several years the Canadian mining industry has been enjoying a period of tremendous growth, even during the economic downturn of 2008-09. That downturn had a relatively short-lived impact on the mining industry. We were one of the first to bounce back, and we bounced back quite quickly and strongly.
A very strong demand for metals and minerals from emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil, and others has created a tremendous opportunity for Canada. Commodity prices for both base and precious metals are strong and are expected to generally remain so for years to come.
The mining industry will always be cyclical, to a certain degree, but the consensus is that the general trend in prices will be positive for decades to come.
All this demand is translating into opportunity and prosperity for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. As Ryan mentioned, we anticipate over $140 billion in mining investment over the next five years. That's a figure that includes investment to build new mines and to expand existing operations across the full range of commodities, in every region of the country, with the exception of Prince Edward Island. I'll save the potato mining joke.
To capitalize on this opportunity, a number of challenges must be overcome. The challenges can be grouped into three categories. They include, first, inefficiencies in government review processes. We've started to see those begin to be addressed through the Budget Implementation Act.
The second challenge is remote regions or inadequate or uncompetitive infrastructure. We tend to operate in very rural and remote areas, and we need railways, roads, ports, and power grids to develop mines and get our products to market.
The third challenge is in the area of human resources and skills constraints.
Ryan has just provided you with a good overview of the magnitude and breadth of the HR challenges for the mining sector. So in the interest of leaving more time for questions, I won't reiterate. I will add, however, that given that the Mining Industry Human Resources Council was one of the highest performing sector councils, the Mining Association of Canada and its members were disappointed to learn of the abolition of the sector council program. Nonetheless, we're cautiously optimistic about MIHR's ability to continue operating beyond March 2013.
Individually, all MAC members are very actively working to address skills and personnel issues within their own operations. However, there's recognition that to best meet the needs of the entire sector, a more concerted approach is required. Our board of directors recently struck an HR task force to oversee the process of determining how industry can collectively address HR issues, in light of the elimination of sector council funding.
The coming months will bring a measure of clarity on the future of MIHR and how industry will continue to work together on skills issues to make sure that the mining industry continues to thrive and grow for the benefit of all Canadians.
We hope that government will continue to support industry efforts to attract, recruit, and retain the next generation of the mining industry workforce. Industry efforts, such as those undertaken by MIHR, which Ryan mentioned, specifically in the areas of labour market information and intelligence, worker certification, and aboriginal engagement in training programs, are particularly useful.
Thanks again, and I look forward to your questions.