Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It's my pleasure to be here to talk about sustainable development. I'm going to take you through who we are as the Mining Association of Canada, a theoretical framework for sustainability, and the practical application we are undertaking as an industry called “Towards Sustainable Mining”. I'll then focus specifically on the oil sands and then some conclusions. I hope that theoretical platform will help to shape the discussions today and help you position the public policy issues going forward.
Let me tell you a bit about the Mining Association of Canada. We're the national association of the mining industry, with 63 members and associate members. Our companies are engaged in exploration, mining, smelting, refining, and semi-fabrication, and we're suppliers of goods and services to the industry. We represent the “seniors” or producers of minerals and metals, including the Canadian oil sands producers who engage in mining in the front end of their process. As an industry, we are committed to sustainable development through our “Towards Sustainable Mining” initiative. We are also an award-winning association, having won the 2005 Globe award for environmental performance as an association.
Mr. Chairman, I'm not sure how much time you want me to take. I thought I'd go through some of the facts at the end of the process fairly quickly but spend a bit of time on the theoretics.