Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I do have to mention, and my colleagues can vouch for me, that in every sector I've always mentioned mining. I've been able to bring it in somehow. I do that because I don't think many Canadians recognize the importance of mining. One of the things I've done since I've been elected has been to try to bring forward the importance of mining to our country.
If you look back at the very first slide you brought forward earlier, you'll see the mining industry payments to government are $10 billion. So mining has been supporting government and jobs, and the list can be endless, for decades if not centuries.
One thing I was very happy to hear was that, in the mining sector, we don't see this necessarily as a downturn but as a pause. I'm excited to hear it because in my community of Sudbury, we've been calling it death by a thousand cuts. While we've seen large job losses at places like Xstrata, with 686 permanent job losses; the mothballing of some mines that have lower-grade nickel and other minerals in there; the shutdown, as you mentioned, at Vale Inco for a couple of months; and FNX Mining, First Nickel Inc., and all of these places hit hard by this downturn, we're waiting for that pendulum to come back.
While we're doing that, there are some important things we wanted to maybe get the government to get involved with. I know there was positive support from the METC, the medical expenses tax credit, that was in the budget. I heard that loud and clear from many of the organizations in my community. But while we're on pause and waiting to hit the play button, what other things can we do to support the mining sector? I'll open that up.