Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to our guests today. It is certainly an interesting topic for all of us.
I know, Mr. Denham, some great work has been done with BDC, and I've had the opportunity to speak with many entrepreneurs who have found that working with you has been very beneficial, so I appreciate your being here and your being able to be part of the discussion that we have.
I'd like to speak to the Canadian Space Agency. I had the opportunity in 1980 to be in Moscow when the Apollo-Soyuz link-up was on display there, and then just a few years ago I saw a similar display in Washington. It's rather interesting how, depending on where you are, which one gets shined up and which one doesn't, but that's simply between the two countries involved, I assume.
I want to talk about an issue that is part of the U.S. relationship. Last November the U.S. government updated their U.S. commercial space legislation with the passing of the Spurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Act of 2015, which legalizes space mining. It specifically allows U.S. citizens to engage in commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources, including water and minerals.
My question is whether or not we have similar legislation provisions that would address the same issues, or whether the department would be dealing with establishing laws and regulations on space mining. I know that BDC deals with Canada and EDC with global, but perhaps you could just speak to that particular issue, please.