Finance committee  Thank you. I'm here with my colleague, Brendan Marshall, the director of economic affairs for the Mining Association of Canada. In 2011, the mining industry contributed $35.6 billion to Canada's GDP, employed 320,000 workers, and paid $9 billion in taxes and royalties to both levels of government, an increase in all three areas over the previous year, reflecting the strong performance of the mining industry in recent years.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  As I believe I've said, I think a clearer process and a more predictable one will provide everyone with greater certainty—including the public—and clear opportunities to participate. A well-run process under the new legislation should very much contribute to our industry's efforts to achieve its social licence.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Insofar as our industry is concerned, as I said earlier, we fully expect it to apply to all mines, all major mines, including potentially some mines that currently don't fall under it.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  The way Environment Canada is enforcing section 36 of the Fisheries Act today, no, that could not take place because it is their view that you cannot use section 35 to get around section 36. So in the case of the mining industry, no, there would not be a way around that because there isn't a way.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  What we've seen is a steady increase in the application of section 36, at least to our sector. We might suggest that other sectors may not be regulated with quite the same degree of rigour as ours is, but in our case we could not drain it and then fill it in again. It would not be allowed.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes, that's how I think the regional study provisions under CEA could contribute to provincial land use planning. I think that's exactly what that new provision will help support.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Yes, and I think the equivalency provisions or the substitution provisions will depend on where the federal government has determined that the provincial process is deemed to be equivalent and sufficiently robust, as I think it is in Quebec and British Columbia. It is an opportunity for those provinces to be able to make decisions about developments independent of the federal government.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  There is land use planning under way right now in the Ring of Fire, so that would be one obvious opportunity. This legislation has to pass first, but should the province invite the federal government to participate, that would be one such opportunity.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Are we willing to...?

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  I think the challenge that governments always face is that in the absence of a project, it's hard to justify taxpayers' dollars going into studying a region. But when you have an Ekati diamond mine, the first, for example, or when you have the new project in the Ring of Fire, you have the impetus, the justification, for governments to step in and do that kind of regional review.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Oh, yes. Well, it remains to be seen what the regulations say with respect to the list, but we expect that the same projects that are currently assessed will continue to be assessed and that there's the same possibility for brownfield sites. Given the improvements to environmental assessment and the fact that those same brownfield sites will be assessed by the province anyway—they are already assessed by the provinces—then we don't have issues with the fact that they might subsequently be included in federal assessment.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  And the fact that they're now synchronized and there's the opportunity for substitution.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Well, projects that proceed faster are projects that first of all will proceed; some projects die because they don't get to go forward. When that comes, there's a lot of employment and business development through construction. Then your average mine has operational expenditures of about $100 million a year.

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  Companies do that, but with this provision—

Subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Finance on Bill C-38 committee  There is another measure of this proposed legislation, one that we had recommended and that we also see as an improvement towards environmental protection, and that is the regional study provision. We made this recommendation when we appeared before the standing committee in the context of the Ring of Fire.