Evidence of meeting #14 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 project.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Zinc Corporation
It's a sliding scale. I don't have the exact numbers with me, but it's approximately 5% tax. That's a mining tax in addition to the profits tax, of course, that will be paid on normal corporate profits. There's also a mining tax that's payable directly on the mining revenue.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
That’s fine.
I have one last question for you, then I will turn to Ms. Jones.
Who are your major potential clients and buyers?
5:05 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Zinc Corporation
Our company will produce a lead and zinc concentrate. That is, our principal products are lead and zinc, but they're not in final form. They have to go to a smelter.
There are four lead-zinc smelters in Canada--well, there are three now, because the one in Timmins has recently shut down--so the likelihood is that the lead and zinc concentrate will be transported to the Trail smelter in British Columbia, or the Horne smelter in Quebec, or perhaps the Flin Flon smelter in Manitoba.
However, that's a function of how this gets financed. The likelihood is that we will have to seek financing overseas, in which case the product will be exported, probably to Asia, as part of a total financing package where we will seek foreign investment from perhaps Japan, Korea, or China.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you.
Ms. Jones, I have two questions for you. The first will be very short. What is the average age of the native people undergoing training for work in the mines?
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you.
My other question is about the program you have spoken of. You said it was about to come to an end?
Everyone here has at least a B.A. an M.A., a Ph.D. or post-doctoral studies. When you speak with the native communities, these people have perhaps completed their 1st, 2nd or 3rd year of elementary school, or some may have finished their 5th grade or may have started High School. These clients aren’t very educated and you train them for the situation.
If your training undertaking came to an end, what effect would this have on workers and future workers whom you are trying to integrate into the companies?
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Mine Training Society
If our organization didn't exist and we didn't have the funding to continue, I guarantee that the attachment to the labour force would drop.
The average individual we're working with does not have a high school diploma. We're lucky if they have grade 10. From the data I've looked at for our trainees, I think four have had post-secondary education. That's out of the 800 we've worked with. And 75% don't have a high school diploma. Some have a GED or have done upgrading.
We're dealing with folks who do not have the basic education to get into the mining industry, and we've been having a great deal of success in getting those individuals trained. We can train to the skill set, to the competency, as opposed to the theoretical piece.
5:10 p.m.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Zinc Corporation
Could I just add to that?
The funding for these programs is set to expire at the end of March, but we have made application to the government, and the industry organizations have made representations that the programs be extended or replaced by equivalent programs. So we are seeking the support of the government in the budget speech to see a continuation of these programs, because they're absolutely vital to the mining industry in the north. Not only are they vital, but they are having tremendous positive benefits.
Our company has been one of the beneficiaries of some of these programs, and I can tell you that the benefit in the community is very, very significant. Even though we're not yet in production, the communities we serve are already benefiting from these programs.
So we are asking the government to extend those programs or introduce a new equivalent program when that first program expires. It's a technical reason that it's expiring, so we hope it will be replaced.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Ms. Day.
Mr. Allen, you have about two minutes before we suspend the meeting to go in camera.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Okay, thank you, Chair, for all that time.
Ms. Jones, I'll start with you.
On the challenges and opportunities you mention, you talk about the sunset of the program, then you talk about a pan-territorial strategy discussion on October 13, and then you talk about the development of a natural resources workforce development strategy.
What was the outcome of that October 13 meeting? Does it make sense to ask for a renewal of the ASEP program in its existing form before you've gone through these strategy sessions and you've had an output from that session?
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Mine Training Society
The outcome of the October meeting was that the three mine training organizations of the north—the Yukon Mine Training Association, ours, and the Kivalliq—have been given a task to develop a pan-territorial strategy that will take us ten years down the road. We're not going to really hit our stride in mining until 2017, when we have 9,000 miners, and it's going to take time to train people—our aboriginal and northern workforce—to be able to take opportunity out of that.
ASEP is sunsetting. It's run its ten years under Treasury Board. They have not announced a successor project to that. So we're taking the bull by the horns and developing the strategy, giving ourselves a two-year timeline to be able to bring it forward to the Government of Canada to try to develop something that will allow the mining industry in the north to continue to benefit the rest of Canada.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
The point on that, too, is whether there are ways you can make recommendations as to how that program can be better delivered and more efficient.
Then the second thing is that I did notice that your labour curves drop off quite a bit in the 2025 to 2027 range. But do you anticipate the requirement of a significant number of foreign workers to top that up? What suggestions would you have on the immigration process?
5:15 p.m.
General Manager, Mine Training Society
If we could identify under the ministerial instruction that individuals having mining backgrounds be allowed to come through faster into Canada, that would assist in the short term.
It does talk about the drop-off, but we haven't even talked about the exploration that's going on in the Yukon. With the GEM project, we're finally identifying the haystacks in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. We're just getting started in mining. Those are just the advance projects.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Allen.
Thank you all very much. The information you've given us today has left us with some clear messages, and we thank you for that. I'm sure this information will find its way into our report.
Thank you very much.
I'll suspend the meeting for a minute or two to go in camera. We'll come back to discuss future business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]