Natural Resources committee  At this point, our drivers are mostly internal. In Canada as a whole—not the federal government or the provinces—there are mixed signals. It's an uncertain policy climate and has been for a number of years.

Natural Resources committee  But independent of that, it's an issue that even at the global level, the International Council on Mining and Metals has been very engaged on, climate change policy issues. They have a statement. So it's an issue that—

Natural Resources committee  I'd be speculating to give you a precise answer. I'll go back to what I said earlier. Just as there's a built-in incentive to reduce energy, because it's a major cost, and therefore reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a price on carbon can also be a disincentive to investment, potentially.

Natural Resources committee  I don't think I'm going to give you a clear answer, because you have a very precise question that I don't have the answer to.

Natural Resources committee  No, not at this point; I don't have something with me, no.

Natural Resources committee  That's not our business line. We produce commodities; we don't necessarily produce the commodities.... There is research under way to develop more energy-efficient mills in Canada; there's research at UBC, for example. When we do that, the technology ends up being used and exported, but it's not typically owned, necessarily, by the industry; it's owned by those who develop it at universities and so on.

Natural Resources committee  It is mostly, yes.

Natural Resources committee  It can vary. I don't have a lot of detail. The shortages are across all categories of worker, whether it's an engineer, a geologist, or a truck driver. It's everything. I think a lot of the foreign workers have tended to be more on the professional level, but going forward it could be broader than that.

Natural Resources committee  Do I include the oil sands or not? We're at about 2%, not including the oil sands. Of course, it's quite a bit bigger when you include the oil sands.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  We as an association have been reporting member company GHG emissions for over a decade, and on a site basis too, not just an aggregate basis. We also have, as part of Towards Sustainable Mining, a specific performance indicator dealing with greenhouse gas management, and members report on that.

Natural Resources committee  If you're an energy-intensive industry like ours, there are a lot of built-in incentives to reduce your greenhouse gases, because really you're reducing your costs.

Natural Resources committee  To be honest, off the top of my head, I don't know the answer. A good number of them. We do have as members some of the major multinationals you've heard of, Xstrata and Valley, but we also have Teck, and we have a number of...IAMGOLD, Inmet, Barrick. There's a range of major Canadian producers as well, as well as a lot of smaller companies.

Natural Resources committee  Outside of Alberta, which has made more use of that, at this point, I'll be honest, not a lot. We think there's the potential for it to become very important in the future. We face a major human resources shortage right now. We have one of the oldest workforces in the country. It's partly our own fault.

Natural Resources committee  Yes.