Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  From the exploration perspective, the significance of land use planning can't be overstated, in the sense that exploration dollars flow where they're allowed to flow, and if communities don't want us to flow somewhere, land use planning is the mechanism through which they can tell us that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll start off, and then I'll pass it to my colleague Mr. Meyers. There are a couple of points I want to make. The first is that the difference between the two graphs is significant, in that one is absolute value and one is relative value. While the figures on slide 12 may be quite high, as you pointed out, and exploration expenditures are higher in 2012 than they were in the early 2000s, first of all, it's—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, these figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so that's one point.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The second is what we're seeing with the huge upswing in metal prices throughout the 2000s. Graph 13 shows that despite similar geology and despite similar logistical challenges, NWT should have seen a similar upswing in maintaining its percentage of overall exploration in Canada.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, I'd like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to speak to you all today in relation to Bill C-47. I am Nadim Kara. I am the senior program director with PDAC and I am here to state our support for Bill C-47.