Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I greatly appreciate the chance to be here. Thank you for allowing me to speak to you. I will give you a bit of background on the Canadian minerals and metals sector, on some of its challenges, and on the innovation imperative, as I understand th

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Chair. To respond to that, it has proven to be very complicated to compare apples to apples with Australia. We have not undertaken or been able to do what you're asking, although it's a good question. The Canada Mining Innovation Counci

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I'm not sure that I have a copy of the report the member is referring to, although I am aware of a study by the Ontario Mining Association. The Government of Ontario is looking at that. What may be of interest is some work that we do federally and provincially through

Natural Resources committee  There's an initiative in which we've partnered with Indigenous and Northern Affairs that is supporting the adoption and development of green mining technologies among first nations communities. That effort is really looking at wanting to support indigenous communities in monitori

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, in terms of the question about clusters, the committee may be interested to hear that at CanmetMining, our labs are located in two of the most mining innovation clusters in the country, the first being Sudbury, which has been likened to being the Silicon Valley of mini

Natural Resources committee  The major projects management office is a big part of mining development in Canada. Sometimes as much as 80% of the projects going through the Canadian environmental assessment process are mining projects. In terms of the question on reviews, that's not my direct area of experti

Natural Resources committee  I am familiar with the GEM program because it is foundational for mining and energy development in Canada. In terms of the latest updates and evaluations, Mr. Chair, I will need to go back to my colleague to bring that forward. The past evaluations of GEM have shown a leveraging

Natural Resources committee  In the 2016 budget there was an announcement of a review of some of the tax measures. That may very well be done there. As the committee will know, that work is all under the purview of the Minister of Finance, so he would be best positioned to respond to that.

Natural Resources committee  In terms of developing the human capital, Natural Resources Canada has recognized that it has a responsibility to support some of that development, whether it's hiring summer students, geology students, or post-docs in a number of its science programs. One concrete example is t

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, in our talent management and recruitment efforts, we always have a view to emerging challenges and how, as a science-based department, we can best support government efforts, whether it's through informing regulations, encouraging industry to adopt, for example, green

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, I believe the question refers to the minerals and metals policy that was released in Whitehorse. In terms of indigenous participation, NRCan has undertaken a number of activities. We have an aboriginal mining guide that I'd be happy to share with the committee, if you

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, one of the interesting things about Natural Resources Canada is that we are the responsible regulator for explosives, and as a regulator for explosives that are used in natural resource extraction and development, we're part of the whole-of-government consultation with

Natural Resources committee  In terms of the environmental assessment process, the lead for the Government of Canada is the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. They are responsible for moving forward with the duty to consult and framing the accommodation. That work is informed by the technical and scie

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, waste management in mining is one of the significant issues. We have done a number of projects out of CanmetMining at Natural Resources Canada. We are also the secretariat to MEND, the mine environment neutral drainage program, which is federal and provincial, with ind

Natural Resources committee  A number of companies and industry reports have indicated that, because of all the risks and the high cost, individual companies can't afford to do the technological development, the de-risking, the demonstration, and the verification all on their own. It really needs to have eco