Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the witnesses, thank you to both of you for your presentations.
Turning to you, Mr. Baird, I would say up front that I think Canada's mining industry certainly needs to be congratulated for the amount of capital and investment that it does make around the world and for the benefits that it does draw back to Canada.
I know there is always a debate on corporate social responsibility. I've been at some of your mine sites, and we'll not get into that one. I would say that Canada's mining industry will stack up very well against any other in the world in terms of their total corporate social responsibility. I just want to say that at the beginning because I think you are to be congratulated.
You heard the discussion earlier on the Pacific Alliance. You did say in your discussion that it's up to our trade negotiators to decide. What I'm trying to decide is, just what are we negotiating?
This is not a free trade agreement. It's not an FTAA. We're not negotiating with a bloc. We're already an observer. There's been no cost benefit analysis done. Mr. Dade mentioned cost benefit analysis. I have yet to determine just what we're focusing on here and what we're trying to do. It's nice to have a nice social club among countries; its a wonderful thing. To sit down and have a beer together, to get people together and have some wine at night, a little party, it's a wonderful thing; however, there are serious trade issues that we ought to be dealing with. That's my concern.
What does the mining industry see has to come out of an agreement? We want to call it a Pacific Alliance agreement or whatever it may be. I think the FTAA would have dealt with a lot more of the areas that your needs are seen in, but that wasn't possible. What do you see has to be done—and I know you have a paper wherein you talk about major opportunities, and we will go through that in those markets, and I know they're there—to glean a benefit for Canada and for the mining industry in terms of this particular discussion?
I'll ask as well in terms of Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, where I think there are serious concerns about whether being in this club versus that club might have an impact on us. Do you see any impact for you and your mining industry in those other countries?