Foreign Affairs committee  There have been questions raised, certainly, and I think that was the government's and this consultation's view of a good way to deal with them, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a very new process, but it's one that looks as though it emerged from consultations between NGOs and mining companies. We weren't involved, so we weren't involved in creating the process, but it looks like a helpful process, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  What Mr. Heaps has just said is certainly true. These days media is such that any allegation immediately blows up and travels the Internet. I guess the difference I see is that the counsellor process is a little different from a legally framed process that demands a ministerial investigation and then includes a suite of sanctions and legal appeals, rather than a common-sense ability to look into the facts and deal with whatever the allegations are in a practical way.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chairman and standing committee members. I'm Robert Blackburn, senior vice-president of SNC-Lavalin International, and I'm accompanied by my colleague, Jean-François Gascon, who is the leader of our project sustainability group and environment. We're going to jointly make a very brief presentation.