Finance committee  In the Northwest Territories, I believe that 60% of the population demographic are indigenous Canadians. When I say that one in six jobs in the north is provided by the mining industry, the vast majority of those jobs would be benefiting, directly or indirectly, indigenous communities whether they were working at the mine site or working in some sort of supply capacity, in an entrepreneurial capacity, servicing the mine in one of many respects.

Finance committee  Exploration is the front end of the minerals business. You have to find the minerals in the ground before you can develop a project into a viable mine. Let's say there's a needle in a haystack. Exploration is finding that needle in the haystack. The ratio of deposits that are economically developable is very small and it's an extremely high-risk business proposition.

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely. MAC recently was working with CanNor to identify how many projects are in the northern projects management office pipeline and what their remoteness is. If I remember the numbers correctly, I believe that 13 of the 22 projects listed in that registry were without access to an all-season road.

Finance committee  Thanks for the question. We have a Mining Industry Human Resources Council that does annual forecasts for the subsequent 10 years to give industry important data about the number of new employees that we're going to need to meet demand for the production of the Canadian mining industry.

Finance committee  Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this consultation process. I'm Brendan Marshall, vice-president, economic and northern affairs at the Mining Association of Canada. MAC is the national voice of Canada's mining and mineral-processing industry, representing more than 40 members engaged in exploration, mining, smelting and semi-fabrication across a host of commodities.

International Trade committee  That's okay. I appreciate that my copresenters here also have important views to share.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  A lot of capital is raised within Canada and spent within Canada but also invested abroad. Over a long time, the Canadian mining industry has developed a business ecosystem that is broadly representative across the supply chain of the business, ranging from exploration to finance to supply to mining to equipment.

International Trade committee  Environmental engineering organizations.

International Trade committee  Bill C-49 that is before the House, in our view, is a lost opportunity to support—as Mr. Sinclair says—local Canadian businesses to take advantage of that type of market share.

International Trade committee  My colleague Ben Chalmers is the lead on that particular file. I think the best approach for me to answer that question will be to provide some documentation to the committee on the industry's views on the ombudsman.

International Trade committee  I don't think it's necessarily a question of there being limitations. I would pivot and ask what opportunities there are for increased certainty, collaboration, and co-operation. As I mentioned earlier, to Mr. Allison's question, mining companies have a unique reality in that when they make an investment, that investment is geographically bound within the borders of that particular country.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, but the translation didn't really bring the question through. Have the indigenous peoples been consulted in what respect?

International Trade committee  In what aspect?

International Trade committee  I think the committee would be best fit to answer that question. How many indigenous people have you brought before the committee as witnesses? I can't answer that question.