Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2009

[Brooke Clements]

I can't really comment on that right now, because I'm not familiar with the details of our permits. I'm mostly commenting to ensure that there is not excessive duplication going forward, especially in this new land use legislation.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

If Chidliak comes to fruition as a fully functioning, producing mill, what would be the jobs created?

[Brooke Clements]

Hopefully there would be jobs from top to bottom at the mine, all the way up eventually to senior management positions and things like that: heavy equipment operators, miners, maintenance staff, people associated with supply and logistics—positions like that.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

How many would there be?

[Brooke Clements]

For example, at the mines in the Northwest Territories there are maybe 300 or 400 people on site at any given time, so if it's on that kind of scale, you could have a total of 700 workers, 350 in and 350 out.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

I'm talking about Nanook and Chidliak, if they are developed to become producing mills.

[Brooke Clements]

If they develop into producing mines, we would hope to develop something on a similar scale. A major, world-class mine would probably have 700 employees, with maybe half on site at any given time.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Would you be taking on a lot of trades people, developing them locally?

[Brooke Clements]

Yes, on-the-job training would be a very big component. The existing mines have strong programs in on-the-job technical training.

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

What percentage are you hoping to strive for, for each...?

[Brooke Clements]

It would be just as high as possible. Often, the percentages you hope to achieve are part of an impact benefit agreement, but I would hope more than 50%.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We'll now go to the second round, and we'll begin with Mr. Bagnell. His turn will be followed by Mr. Rickford's, each for five minutes.

Go ahead, Mr. Bagnell.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

And thank you, gentlemen. It's great to have you both here.

Brooke, this is related to infrastructure. Of course, in our hearings for the last month we've heard numerous times about infrastructure. I want you to be not self-interested in this but to consider the overall picture. Obviously, we can only spend so much. We've had all sorts of proposals: for roads up to Tuktoyaktuk, down the Mackenzie Valley from Yellowknife to Bathurst Inlet, and you talked about a road up Baffin Island today. We heard yesterday about a road potentially up to northern Quebec and then a ferry over to Iqaluit.

Of all those, what do you think the general public consensus would be as to the highest priority or the place to start?

[Brooke Clements]

I would say the highest priority, speaking probably for the people of Baffin Island, would be improved port facilities.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Let's talk about all those roads I just mentioned, though, and forget the ports for a minute.

[Brooke Clements]

Of the roads, I think the only one that's at a significant, advanced stage of study is the Bathurst road and port, so I would say that one, because it's advanced and there are a number of mineral projects close to that in the Kitikmeot region. That's a very important one.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Are you talking about a road just from those mines up to the port, or from the port right down through the diamond mines into Yellowknife?

[Brooke Clements]

I think initially there was talk of actually going to the diamond mines, so that the ships could supply the diamond mines. I don't know where it sits today.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I'll come back to you in a second.

Mr. Mark, my colleague talked to you about the port in Iqaluit. The Government of Nunavut said this morning they were doing a study, and they have three options. I assume they consulted you in their study and that you gave them your input as to what you would like to see in the way of a port here.

[Manasie Mark]

Yes, I would very much appreciate it if they would get in touch with us.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

What I'm suggesting is that you'd better call them soon, because I think they're almost finished their study. If they haven't talked to you already, you'd better get in touch with them.

I have another question. Do you have any rough idea of the difference in cost? If we put in a lot of new ports so that we can get more ships in, what would be the cost per pound? I know it depends on what the thing is, but how much cheaper is it by ship than by air? I know everything has to come in by air to a lot of those communities. Do you know roughly how much cheaper it is by ship?

[Manasie Mark]

I don't have the exact answer on that. To myself, it is not by pound; it is by measurement. I would do the amount here, roughly, and then the head office would finalize it. I'm not sure how much exactly I would calculate up here. It would be much different from down in the Montreal head office.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Okay.

Brooke, you mentioned several millions of dollars in each of your exploration projects. In raising the funding for that, how much is contingent on the flow-through shares or any other tax credits that are available, or would they have just occurred anyway, even if there were no federal tax credit?

[Brooke Clements]

I would say these projects are promising enough that they probably would occur without the federal tax credit. Our project here, on which we spent $9 million, didn't use any flow-through funding, but the project at Nanuq, on which we spent $1.5 million, was almost all flow-through dollars.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

It expires March 31, so what does the federal government need to put in place or expand for the future? How important is that?