I am personally not aware of new studies specifically with respect to the Ring of Fire. I wanted to flag to this committee, though, that there is a model from Alaska that we have brought to the government's attention to address the infrastructure deficit.
For the last several decades, Alaska has had an infrastructure bank, which has been a tremendously successful economic engine for the State of Alaska. It provides long-term, low-interest financing for major infrastructure projects that allow economic development that might otherwise not take place. They are not in the business of competing with banks; they help finance projects that banks won't touch.
We had Michael Catsi, vice-president with the Alaska infrastructure bank, come to Ottawa. I know he would come again. If this committee wanted to invite him, I am sure he would come, and he could tell you about the work they have done.
I will just give you one quick illustration. The Red Dog mine in Alaska is a world-class lead and zinc operation, half-owned by the NANA peoples and half-owned by Teck Resources, a Canadian company. It was developed some 20 years ago because the Alaska infrastructure bank helped finance the road and port on a 50-year payback period. It has generated billions of dollars in economic benefits to the State of Alaska and to the first nations in the state.
In Nunavut, we have a world-class lead and zinc deposit at Izok Lake. We have known about it as long, but it remains idle because we don't have the infrastructure.