Absolutely.
With respect to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, AIDEA, we support that institution's design as one that could work in the Canadian context.
AIDEA is basically the Alaskan version of what the current government has proposed to achieve via the Canada Infrastructure Bank. They leverage public dollars to try to attract private capital, but their emphasis is focused differently with respect to outcomes. They also have different tools.
For example, AIDEA can be the sole owner of a piece of infrastructure, which they are. For example, AIDEA owns both of Alaska's deep-sea ports. They lease for operation both of those institutions. In that sense, the State of Alaska is the owner of both of those deep-sea ports.
One example of a great success from AIDEA, which we think would be mirrored well within Canada, is the Red Dog mine. The Red Dog mine is one of the world's highest concentrate lead zinc mines. It was not viable without a road and a port. It received a flexible-type funding approach from AIDEA that had a number of different means for the company to repay that port and road investment over the course of the life of the mine, including a steady interest rate over the course of the 50-year payback period; escalators on the payback, based on commodity price; and AIDEA's permitting the company to postpone its repayments based on commodity price, because the sole purpose of AIDEA is to generate employment and economic development opportunities for Alaskans. In that sense, when you look at an investment outside the context of strictly return on investment, or ROI, and you look at it in terms of trying to generate employment and economic development for local communities, you're going to assess criteria differently
The corollary to that is that in Nunavut, we have a very large lead zinc deposit. It also needs a port and a road. You may have heard of the Grays Bay road and port project from other participants or witnesses before your committee. We don't have the institution in place to help finance that.
Meanwhile, in Alaska the Red Dog mine has generated literally billions of dollars in economic developments, employing indigenous peoples. It's created indigenous businesses. It has employed local Alaskans. It's paid dividends to communities across the entire state based on their resource revenue-sharing formula.
What's happening in Nunavut? Nothing. The company has backed out, basically saying that they'll need to reassess the project at another time.
In terms of having an Arctic-specific fund, we need to be able to assess what the regional realities are to have an institution that understands those to move projects forward.