Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First off, the two places I spoke of really are not mine sites, they're early-stage exploration projects. If everything would go perfectly for those projects, you would hope to first put them into production five to ten years from now, and you would hope to have say a ten- to twenty-year mine life, maybe longer if it's really spectacular.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right now, probably this year, we've spent $9 million here on our Chidliak project, and probably 20% to 25% of that went to local goods and services, using his ships, purchasing food for the camps here, to a local air service provider who did all of our fixed-wing flights to the property.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's very important, and I hope the committee would seriously consider extending those benefits to the exploration industry because sometimes, especially in difficult market conditions, that is one of the few ways that companies, especially small companies, have of raising capital.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's really not a yes-or-no question, because it is in this new legislation that the land use plans are germinating. There are a couple here, but there isn't one for this area of Baffin. A lot of this legislation spells out the details of how these land use plans are formulated.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I probably shouldn't comment on the... The mining industry right now is reviewing aspects of the legislation and is going to formalize a very detailed analysis in response that will probably be available for the House when the legislation comes before you to consider. The main point I really wanted to put forward is a recognition that the mining industry is important in all this and that the mining industry and other proponents should be a part of the whole process.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I will be more specific in one area. For example, a big part of the land use plan will be exclusions. I don't know how many are slated to be formulated for Nunavut. It might be eight, or something like that. A specific component assesses areas within the regional land use area that might be considered for parks as excluded areas, areas not open for mineral exploration.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It would be just as high as possible. Often, the percentages you hope to achieve are part of an impact benefit agreement, but I would hope more than 50%.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say the highest priority, speaking probably for the people of Baffin Island, would be improved port facilities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Of the roads, I think the only one that's at a significant, advanced stage of study is the Bathurst road and port, so I would say that one, because it's advanced and there are a number of mineral projects close to that in the Kitikmeot region. That's a very important one.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think initially there was talk of actually going to the diamond mines, so that the ships could supply the diamond mines. I don't know where it sits today.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would say these projects are promising enough that they probably would occur without the federal tax credit. Our project here, on which we spent $9 million, didn't use any flow-through funding, but the project at Nanuq, on which we spent $1.5 million, was almost all flow-through dollars.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, on-the-job training would be a very big component. The existing mines have strong programs in on-the-job technical training.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can't really comment on that right now, because I'm not familiar with the details of our permits. I'm mostly commenting to ensure that there is not excessive duplication going forward, especially in this new land use legislation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  From Iqaluit and Pangnirtung, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Two.