In the extractive sector, you have oil and gas, and then mining. Within mining, you obviously have the exploration side and the extraction side. I think the key challenges right now are on the exploration side. The focus ought to be—and I believe that budget 2015 strives for that—to extend the mineral exploration tax credit to 15% flow-through to support junior mining companies in raising capital to finance exploration activities. It's been terrifically successful and it needed to be extended.
Another important piece, certainly speaking as the member of Parliament for the great Kenora riding and the interests across northern Ontario, is that outside of some world-class, scale-yielding mines, we also have a number of smaller extractive opportunities that have arisen out of good policy related to exploration. Atikokan and Rainy River come to mind, and there are others. Importantly, what we heard from those stakeholders was to examine the Canadian exploration expenses for tax purposes.
Obviously within the extractive sector as a whole, environmental processes are rightly a more prominent part of the process in obtaining permitting for exploration and for extraction, and community consultations. To that end, the expansion of this definition is focused squarely on exploration activities, and effective this tax year, there will be a full deduction on the costs associated with any environmental processes or community consultation processes required as part of getting a permit to carry on exploration activities.