Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2010

[Stephen Quin]

Sure. There's been a long-term proposal to develop an all-season road southwest from Bathurst Inlet. It would end up, coincidentally, going fairly close to the diamond mines. The end of the line would be the Izok Lake deposit, which is a very large copper/zinc deposit just west of the diamond mines.

This has been very actively supported by Nunavut. I got involved peripherally when we got involved in the Hope Bay project in 1999. I was complaining to them about the timelines we were getting. They just laughed and said we were racing along compared to them.

It's one of those chicken-and-egg situations. If that road were there, all the diamond mines and potentially other projects would use it. But no individual project has the capacity to carry that ball on its own. So Nunavut was essentially trying to push that project, as a government, through a coalition, to try to get that project put forward. But what happens is coalition members just give up and go away because it takes so many years.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

But the financing was never in place. Is that not correct?

[Stephen Quin]

That's correct. The companies that were potentially beneficiaries of it were very strong supporters, but nobody gave a guarantee at that point, because who knew whether they would still be in production by the time the road was built.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you, Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Quin, you made some reference to other jurisdictions where mining operations were looking at project and regulatory approvals. Does Capstone have other mining operations in other parts of the world?

[Stephen Quin]

We have a mine in Mexico, and I'm on the board of a company that has a mine in the United States. I've been involved in projects in other jurisdictions as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

When you compare the kinds of regulatory standards that are applied in the north in this case, but generally in Canada, relative to those in other jurisdictions, how do Canadian mining companies, in their practices and protocols for environmental and labour standards, rank with other countries' mining operations in other parts of the world?

[Stephen Quin]

I would say they're very comparable. The standards really don't differ for Canadian companies, whether you're operating overseas or at home. That's much more set by your company policies. Even in the total absence of standards or regulations, companies will impose on themselves the same standards they have elsewhere.

Certainly if you go to anything that's bank financed, the World Bank standards and things like that kick in. The equator principles are very tough and are equivalent to anything in Canada.

So I don't see the standards as being the issue; it's the process that's the issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Okay. That's very helpful.

I don't see any other questions from members, so I'll take this time to thank each of our witnesses today for taking the time to help inform this study. We have a couple of weeks to go before we'll be prepared to enter a proper report to Parliament on this important topic.

There being no other business, I thank members for their attendance. I remind you that we have bells going off for votes in about seven minutes. We'll see you in the House then.

Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.