Thank you, Chair.
Welcome.
It comes to mind that Canada is a leader in mining operations. I come from the labour movement. Within Canada, a mine that's producing well has high-paying jobs, and it certainly benefits the communities.
But over the last year I've been visited in my office—as human rights critic for our party—by representatives from Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. They were all raising issues about mining companies—not all about Goldcorp. We don't want to start painting it that way.
Their suggestion was that in many cases Canadian companies, from their perspective, were working hand in hand with the governments in pushing them off their land.
It's very troubling because of the mining concessions that people seek. In Honduras, I'm sure you know the mining law that was just put in. There are a variety of things. From our standpoint of corporate social responsibility, we're wondering where Canadian companies are fitting in to the processes when these indigenous peoples wind up being moved off their lands, with protest sometimes and even under threat, if not violence itself.
Would it not be in the interest of our Canadian companies and our reputation throughout the world to have our companies sit down in good faith and negotiate, and ask the governments to negotiate with these peoples to ensure that once a resolution is established, the lands are either made available or not made available? At least our reputation would be intact.