Evidence of meeting #11 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was uranium.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Do you think it's possible, I was saying, to have a comprehensive study on resource development in northern Canada without at the same time addressing greenhouse gas emissions?
How will the rapid exploitation, the acceleration of exploitation of those resources in the north, contribute to Canada's overall greenhouse gases and their potential reduction? Is it possible for us to do that without embracing this question?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Ms. Schwann, just before you answer....
Mr. McGuinty, it seems to me that these are questions these witnesses might be better prepared to answer if they were attending an environment committee meeting. It's really stretching it, I think, to expect them to come prepared to this committee with answers to these questions, but I'll let the witnesses go ahead and answer if they would like.
Go ahead, Ms. Schwann.
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Thank you.
We think it's positive to have additional research into greenhouse gas reductions. Certainly, when you look at what the use of the uranium as an end product is, it's ultimately used to reduce greenhouse gas emission impact, so I think it's very important. I think we also have to put things into a global context, in that there is a need for resources on a global basis, and Canadian mining companies operating in Canada under quite stringent environmental regulations operate responsibly. I would prefer to have the resources developed in Canada rather than elsewhere.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Ms. Schwann.
Thank you, Mr. McGuinty.
We go now to Mr. Lizon for the start of the five-minute round.
Go ahead, please sir.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
My first question will go to Saskatchewan Mining Association. Can you tell me, out of the 40 members that you have in the mining sector, how many mines are open pit and how many are underground operations?
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Right now, we have three open-pit coal mines and one open-pit uranium...well, it's in a care and maintenance provision, so there's no open-pit uranium mine right now. The only open-pit operations in Saskatchewan are the coal mining. We have a silica sand operation in northern Saskatchewan that you would consider a quarry or an open-pit type of operation and a couple of smaller building stone and clay quarries as well.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
These open-pit mines would operate for how many months of the year?
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
They would operate 12 months of the year. They're large strip mines. The lignite is 10 metres below the surface.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Can you tell me from your experience how the federal government geoscience data provided to the public assists you in attracting exploration investment from private sector?
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
I think the programs in geoscience that are particularly helpful are the mapping skill programs as well as the larger-scale airborne geophysical programs. They're particularly helpful to the junior companies that may not have the resources of the larger major companies that would be able to carry out that sort of work. They're quite helpful to the junior companies in Canada; they can access the data and do their interpretation and find targets. So it's both: the airborne geophysical surveys and the detailed mapping that's carried out by, typically,the provincial surveys.
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
What would be the reinvestment level by the exploration or mining industry in Saskatchewan at the present time? I understand from your presentation.... I don't know what page it is on, but there is a table of key positions that are required in the mining industry in Saskatchewan until the year 2017. I understand that there's a plan to invest heavily in the mining industry.
If you could answer my first question.... The second question, related to it, will be, how are you planning to meet those requirements in filling the required positions in the mining industry?
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Your first question was with respect to the return on the investment on the mapping and airborne surveys question. I think if you--
Conservative
Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
No. I was asking about the reinvestment level by the mining industry and about the exploration. How much of the money they make gets reinvested?
Executive Director, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Okay. If you look at their total profits, I'm not sure I could actually give you that response, but certainly we're looking at the companies investing over $43 billion in the next 20 years on existing mine operations. That doesn't include the companies like BHP that aren't currently producers and are investing. Right now, BHP has $2 billion invested.
I would say that the companies that are making money in Saskatchewan are reinvesting that money in their existing operations and expanding them. I'm sorry that I can't give you a hard dollar amount on that.
In terms a response on highly qualified persons, we did a lot of this work on the projections with the Mining Industry Human Resources Council. We have taken this information to our post-secondary ministry and are working with them to develop some plans, both for highly skilled workers in terms of the trades and also for the highly qualified people--engineers--on how to make sure there is appropriate training-to-employment types of programs in both the universities and the college sector.
We will have to be innovative, because these are very large numbers. We need to make sure we're engaging first nations and Métis communities and getting those students into the school programs related to mining. Hopefully, more will become involved in the future workforce.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Lizon.
We go now to Mr. Harris up to five minutes. Go ahead, please.
October 31st, 2011 / 4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to go to Mr. Lapointe first, if I may. I want to talk about the regulatory process in Quebec and try to determine whether it's any different from the process in the rest of the provinces, where you have both the federal and provincial governments involved in any type of environmental best practices regulations.
Basically, we have at the outset a two-window process, plus there are windows within each one of those processes. Do you have any more or any less of a two-window process in Quebec for environmental and other DFO issues and things like that?
Cofounder, Coalition pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine
When you refer to the two windows, you refer to both provincial and federal?
Cofounder, Coalition pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine
Yes, of course, there are both levels at work, but it's primarily the provincial government that implements the environmental regulations. The federal regulations are somewhat complementary, if I can summarize it in a brief fashion. There are different regulations that are applied to different levels during the exploration versus the extraction.
Yes, from my knowledge of other jurisdictions, I believe there are differences at some of those different levels as well.
Conservative
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
As far as the environmental review panel is concerned, from the federal point of view, mine operations in the west have to go through either a comprehensive review or a panel review. Do you have those same things in Quebec in efforts to open mines there?
Cofounder, Coalition pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine
Yes, if I can summarize the situation in Quebec, you need to look at Quebec in at least two different sections. There's the southern portion of Quebec, where it's mostly the provincial environmental regulations that are being applied, along with the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement. Mines that are over 7,000 tonnes per day go through a full environmental impact assessment and full public consultations with BAPE in the southern portion of Quebec. The current Mining Act reform is proposing to reduce that threshold to 3,000 tonnes per day for mines.
In the northern part of Quebec, meaning on treaty lands where the Cree, the Inuit, and the Naskapi first nations are, all new mining projects go through an environmental impact assessment and a review panel. That review panel was designed in a 1975 treaty and includes provincial, federal, and first nations representatives. It's my understanding that for certain projects it can happen that you would have a joint panel, a full comprehensive review with a large involvement from the federal level. I believe the Matoush uranium project on Cree traditional land, for instance, is subject to that. It's one of the projects currently on northern lands or treaty lands that is creating controversy.
Conservative
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
I have another question.
The DFO manual of regulations and guidelines for dumping waste material from an open-pit mine says that the safest place to dump waste materials is in a natural lake body. Many people would be surprised to hear that. But in fact, because of the shape of it, it's best for protecting the waste from spillage.
Do you know of any mines opened in Quebec, say in the last 10 years, that use a natural lake body for dumping their waste materials?
Cofounder, Coalition pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine
To my knowledge there have been none.
Certainly there may have been, from the 1940s to the 1950s, under schedule 2, which I believe you're referring to. It's highly controversial, as well, in the communities we're working with.
Conservative
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Thank you.
I have one question for the Saskatchewan folks, just out of interest. I understand that the mine on the Cigar Lake property has had some considerable water problems recently. I think I have the right mine. Have those been sorted out?
Member, Saskatchewan Mining Association
Yes, we have had water inflow issues during the last few years. That has been sorted out, and we're scheduled to enter into production some time in the mid-to-latter part of 2013.