The exploration industry has a real concern about the supply of geologists graduating from Canadian universities. We are already experiencing shortages, and we have been for a number of years.
First of all, we are trying to create awareness of this industry---geology, earth sciences, the relationship between mineral resources and society---through a program we call Mining Matters. This program is designed by teachers and it assists grade 3 and grade 7 teachers in fulfilling their curriculum requirements. We're trying to create an awareness at that level.
But as I said, we're concerned about proper training of geologists coming out of universities. For a number of years we have had people graduating in geology who haven't had any experience in the field. When I went through the system many decades ago, we had a choice of jobs in the field during the summer, and by the time we graduated, we had some pretty significant experience.
So PDAC is contemplating a comprehensive program that looks at awareness and training. We're looking at the possibility of developing a centre that specializes in exploration in Canada--and Laurentian University is high on our list of consideration because it has already started to move in that direction--just to make sure at least one of the 45 universities in Canada to have a geology department can help us get the kinds of explorations we need graduating from geology.