Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 18th, 2016

[Don Rusnak, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

I have what I hope will be a quick question for both of you.

What can the federal government do to assist in getting the proper people and under-represented groups into both the university and the workforce?

[Richard Paquin]

I would say the best way to do it is to make sure that workers are involved in all negotiations, when you get permits in place and all that stuff, in those areas, and also to make sure that we have the ability to promote that concept as it should be promoted.

[Prof. Brent Sleep]

I'm aware of a program that a professor, who just joined our department from McMaster, ran with funding from the RBC Blue Water Project, which is called green mining. That brought students into the university from remote communities to spend two weeks learning about the science associated with mining. It also brought the teachers in, and it was a great experience.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Barlow, we have about two minutes left.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions.

Professor, I was interested to hear you say that some of your students may be taking a little bit longer to find jobs but they are finding jobs. I was at a professionals' employment summit in Calgary a couple of weeks ago. It was more geared toward the oil and gas sector. There were petroleum engineers, geoscientists, and geologists. Many of them haven't had jobs in two years. For them, they don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. In the commodities, oil and gas and mining, we've gone through these ups and downs over the years, but this is the first time many of them are saying that they don't see an exit and that this is the worst they've ever seen it. There are just so many things going against them. So to your students, I hope things work out well.

My question, just really quickly, is on water. I see that your expertise is on the water side, and that's something we have to focus on a great deal. What would be the water consumption innovations, I guess, to minimize water impact in mining as compared with, let's say, coal, nuclear, or oil and gas? In the oil sands, we got rid of tailing ponds for the most part. What are the innovations and advancements for water conservation in the mining sector?

[Prof. Brent Sleep]

I mentioned Professor Papangelakis in chemical engineering. He's working a lot on closed-loop systems for mineral processing. A closed-loop system is about salts removal and the removal of contaminants to recycle water. Anything that reduces the amount of ore that goes to processing will reduce the amount of mine tailings, the amount of waste that's produced, and the impact on water.

Those are a couple of examples.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Could you talk about the Milestone potash mine in Saskatchewan? Do you know that one at all? It will be the first mine in Canada to use treated waste water in its facility, in this case from the city of Regina. Have you any thoughts on that and on maybe what direction that will be going in?

[Prof. Brent Sleep]

I'm not aware of that project, but certainly the reuse of treated waste water is a big topic, and not just for the mining industry. People are looking at the reuse of waste water for domestic consumption as well, especially in drought-stricken areas like California.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us today. Unfortunately, we've hit the hour mark. We're out of time. We greatly appreciate your making the effort to be here today.

[Richard Paquin]

Thank you.

[Prof. Brent Sleep]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I will see the rest of you on Thursday.

We're adjourned.