Thank you, Mr. Rusnak, for the question.
Certainly in my role as project manager of mining services with the economic development commission, I'm on the footprint of that project on a regular basis and deal with its mine general manager as well as the key indigenous groups that have impact benefit agreements. We're at the point now where we have five agreements in place, and up to nine first nations communities as well as the Métis Nation of Ontario have agreements, and that's still a work in progress.
I meet on a regular basis with these various groups, and have tours onsite to deal with pre-qualification and requests for proposals. The aboriginal business groups typically are forming new entities, direct partnerships, or they're directly assigned to development opportunities as this mine and mill are being built.
There are three ways they engage, and on a regular basis I'm dealing with, for example, Rainy River first nation and Naicatchewenin—the two enhanced impact benefit agreement recipients—as well as Rainy Lake Tribal Contracting as they, on a regular basis, have a committee that reviews documents in a committee setting with AMEC and New Gold, who are the folks who let these contracts. I also visit the site on a regular basis to monitor this progress to make sure things are on time and on budget.
Interestingly enough, 60 days prior to any other industries receiving RFP information or RFQ information following pre-qualification, that information flows to the communities. We're working hand in hand to try to up those numbers with respect to having businesses to sustain after the project ends, which is one of the goals.
Bob Gallagher, the former president of New Gold, was brought to Thunder Bay by our office to speak to a room of 150 people last summer. This led to further business relations with aboriginal communities and companies going forward on the project. It's quite clear that, in line with the values and ethics packages that Mr. Gallagher speaks to on his Kamloops operation, the New Afton deposit, as well as this and three other mines in other continents, he wants to have those businesses sustained well after that deposit is mined out in 20 years. That's his goal, and I feel the entire company is living through that, and we're working with that as well.
Iain mentioned a figure of $70 million. As of last week, over $80 million of business money has flowed to Thunder Bay companies. We have great firms. To give you an example, a firm that Mr. Rusnak would be familiar with is TBT Engineering, with Rob Frenette. Three years ago it formed a brand new aboriginal company in conjunction with TBT Engineering to work on the initial survey work for tailings ponds, for road realignment, and for secondary highway realignments, just as one example.