That is an excellent question. It's an important question.
I should note that, under this government in 2021, Canada exported record levels of metals and minerals, and it's now about one-fifth of our total merchandise exports.
Certainly, we are doing an enormous amount of work to ensure that we actually are making as efficient as possible Canada's regulatory and permitting processes. We have an internal process, involving a number of different departments, that is working on different ways in which we can actually make this work more efficiently. We announced over $1 billion in the fall economic statement for the Canada Energy Regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and a number of other departments to increase the capacity so that we are able to actually process the number of applications coming before us.
There was another $1.3 billion in budget 2023 for several federal departments so that they can continue to improve the efficiency of assessments for major projects. We confirmed to the board of directors of the CER in February that they are to identify key priorities as they deliver on their mandate, including working towards more efficient regulatory regimes. We're also working with provinces and territories, which each have their own regulatory and permitting processes, to align those better with the federal process. I think you will see the initial product of some of that work later this or next week when we actually provide an update on the British Columbia regional table.
We've approved, now, four mining sector projects since January: the Marathon Palladium mine, the Valentine gold project, the James Bay lithium mine project and the Lynn Lake gold project. Certainly, this is a big, big effort, and it is an important effort. However, again, it cannot be done by cutting corners from an environmental perspective or by not discharging our obligation to indigenous peoples, which is what the Harper government did and thereby really, really gummed up the process.