Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It's my pleasure to appear here this morning on behalf of Cameco Corporation. My name is Dale Austin. I am Cameco's manager of government relations.
In my remarks this morning, I'd like to provide a brief overview of, first, Cameco and our operations; second, our successful and long-standing relationship with the indigenous and northern Saskatchewan partner communities that support our operations; and finally, the role of innovation and trade in the success of our business.
Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Cameco is one of the world's largest producers of uranium for nuclear energy, accounting for roughly 18% of total global production. The vast majority of that production comes from our extensive mining and milling operations in northern Saskatchewan. We also maintain production sites in the United States and Kazakhstan. In addition, we own uranium refining, conversion, and fuel fabrication facilities in Blind River, Port Hope, and Cobourg, Ontario. We are the sole provider of these conversion facilities for Canadian CANDU reactors.
Through these activities, Cameco employs a total Canadian workforce of about 4,000 direct employees and long-term contractors, a significant number of whom are indigenous residents of northern Saskatchewan. I'll expand on that a little more in a moment.
Cameco's vision is to energize the world as a global leader of fuel supply for clean air nuclear power. Our mission is to bring the multiple benefits of nuclear energy to the world. We play a big part in the energy equations of many countries, including here in North America, where Cameco uranium powers roughly one in every 10 homes in Canada and one in every 19 homes in the United States.
Now that you know a little bit more about Cameco, I'd like to spend a few minutes discussing our indigenous partnerships and the role they play in the success of our company.
Indigenous engagement and employment have been a priority for Cameco since our company was formed in 1988. Our success depends on the long-term, positive partnerships we have built with first nations and Métis communities where we operate, particularly in northern Saskatchewan. We are proud to be Canada's largest industrial employer of indigenous people, with nearly one-third of our total Canadian workforce being composed of individuals of first nations or Métis heritage.
Cameco's indigenous partnerships are a leading example of how the private sector can engage directly with local stakeholders to ensure that a company's success and a community's success are intertwined.
These partnerships have led to over 70% of all of the goods and services we use at our operations in northern Saskatchewan being procured from northern or aboriginal-owned businesses, totalling more than $3 billion over the past decade.
Resource development is often cited as the best way to improve the socio-economic situation for indigenous Canadians, yet project approvals are becoming more difficult to obtain. New projects in Canada's north, where they have the support of local communities and can tap into the expertise of indigenous Canadians, in our view are the most direct way to long-term improvements. Cameco supports further investments, both public and private, in Canada's north that will increase opportunities for indigenous Canadians to live in their home communities and access educational and economic opportunities.
Moving on to a new topic, if committee members are looking for suggestions as to what government and industry can do today to create a strong foundation for future growth, then Cameco would recommend infrastructure investments in remote northern communities, rational regulatory processes that facilitate development, and finally, trade promotion in emerging markets.
As I stated, the majority of Cameco's mining and milling operations are situated in northern Saskatchewan. Because of the remote location of these facilities and the general lack of supporting infrastructure—transportation, aviation, electricity, telephony, broadband—our cost of doing business is considerably higher than that of our competitors, putting Cameco at a disadvantage. This situation is similar for other companies operating at remote sites.
Improved infrastructure would increase the global competitiveness of our industry and open opportunities for development in the north, resulting in significant economic and social benefits for all Canadians.
Canada's resource wealth has long been a major driver of the country's financial health, socio-economic well-being, and job creation efforts. Canada's present fiscal challenges serve as a reminder of the important impact on Canadians when the natural resource sector is not firing on all cylinders.
The current depressed state of the uranium market mirrors the situation for most other commodities. The spot price of uranium today has sunk to roughly $25 a pound, about half of what it was five years ago. While the uranium industry does not garner as much attention as the oil and gas sector, the impact of lower prices for a longer period of time similarly results in reduced employment, investment, and exploration.
Canadians must also have confidence that economic factors do not trump environmental or social considerations when it comes to development. With a foot in both the mining sector and the nuclear energy sector, Cameco operates under an extremely robust and thorough regulatory regime that is based on scientific evidence. We welcome this high degree of regulatory oversight, since it helps to assure the communities where we operate that our operations are both safe and responsible.
Canada's economic prosperity is, to a significant extent, linked to our ability to responsibly and sustainably develop and export our abundant natural resources and value-added products. Canada's regulatory and environmental assessment processes should ensure that resource projects proceed safely and with minimal impact on the environment, rather than being used as an instrument to delay or cancel projects.
Canada's uranium mining industry, and the nuclear industry as a whole, is positioned to be a world leader for decades to come in both domestic and international markets.
In recent years, Cameco has finalized sizable uranium supply agreements with two Chinese utilities and our first ever sales contract with India. Commercial trade with China and India, as with many developing countries, is considerably different from what it is with Canada's traditional export markets, like the United States and western Europe. Government-to-government relationships are incredibly important to getting business done in these countries.
A targeted strategy focused on Canada's nuclear industry to promote nuclear trade and investment with developing nations, particularly China and India, given their ambitious plans to build new reactors and meet their growing electricity demand, would be extremely beneficial.
Even though this portion of the committee's work is focused on the mining sector, I would be remiss if I did not spend a couple of minutes discussing the nuclear sector as well.
As a company that mines uranium, we have our feet firmly planted in the mining, energy, and nuclear sectors. Canada's nuclear sector remains a global leader in uranium production, technological innovation, and electricity generation. Nuclear energy has a significant role to play in addressing global climate change. Current use of nuclear energy worldwide helps the planet avoid some 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year, if the same amount of electricity were produced using fossil fuels.
In Canada, roughly 60% of Ontario's electricity mix comes from nuclear power, enabling the province to become the first jurisdiction in North America to successfully phase out coal-fired power, using strictly Canadian reactor technology.
This is a major contribution to global greenhouse gas reduction efforts, of which our company is extremely proud, facilitating the generation of clean, carbon-free baseload electricity that in most instances would otherwise be produced using greenhouse gas-emitting sources.
Cameco's leadership position in this industry is even more noteworthy, considering the bulk of our competitors are either state-owned enterprises or backstopped by the public treasury, or are multinational mining conglomerates for which uranium comprises only a small fraction of their balance sheets.
As the committee considers input to its report on the future of Canada's oil and gas, mining and nuclear sectors, we would ask that it continue to recognize the contribution that nuclear energy and all products along the nuclear value chain make toward our goal of cleaner air and a low-carbon economy.
Thank you for listening. I look forward to your questions.