Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank my colleague MP Rusnak for sharing time with me today.
My riding is in Labrador, in the subarctic region of Canada. It's primarily lands owned by Inuit and first nations people. Of course, I can relate to everything you're all saying here today because I live the experience as well.
We have huge mining operations in my riding. My first question is going to be around that.
When you look at the cost today of developing a mine in the northern region of Canada versus the south, what are we looking at in terms of cost differential? Do those costs include all of the necessities to run that operation, whether it be roads, ports, rails, electricity, and those kinds of things that are going to be important pieces of infrastructure?
For my second question, you've talked about building 200 kilometres of road for your mine. I'm not sure when that was. How long ago was that? Are there programs out there today that would fit better with mining operations and infrastructure investments? If not, how could the Government of Canada be doing this differently? Our objective is always to create sustainable jobs and a better economy for northerners in Canada and for the people who live there. If there's a way that we could be doing that, in addition to what's already happening or instead of some of the things we're doing, I'd like to hear about it.