Natural Resources committee  My preference would be to talk about social responsibility as a component of sustainability. On industry's part, I believe that we are definitely committed to our corporate social responsibility. But I would also like to suggest that government has a social responsibility and com

Natural Resources committee  It would be the same. Site-specific is important to us, and also very clear definitions as to what that means.

Natural Resources committee  The story in British Columbia right now is coal, primarily metallurgical coal. We produce a minimal amount of thermal coal, and it goes to the U.S. For met coal, our primary customer is China. China and the Asian markets are really the places where our product is going. We have

Natural Resources committee  Certainly our members are getting a lot more savvy in terms of anticipating what's going to be asked of them as they enter the regulatory process. So I think we are doing a better job of producing as much upfront information as we can. There is still the tendency to be asking fo

Natural Resources committee  Okay. Through the mining association, there is a K-to-12 program. Companies take busloads of kids to the operations, to teach them what mining is all about. There are several other programs in the vicinity of the Lower Mainland where they get first-hand experience as to what m

Natural Resources committee  I have to say that unfortunately I'm not able to speak to what meets the National Energy Board process. I don't have first-hand experience that I can relate to you. I apologize for that. I can speak, though, in terms of what mining projects go through when it comes to the regula

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. The mining sector in British Columbia has been talking to both levels of government, the provincial and federal governments, for a very long time about what we used to call harmonization. There is tremendous duplication in the process. A lot of the time even the same

Natural Resources committee  The only thing I would like to add is that I think the industry is assuming its responsibility as well in terms of creating capacity in the aboriginal communities themselves. I think it is important to ensure that the people representing their bands have the knowledge and experti

Natural Resources committee  I can only echo that. In terms of what the mining sector and the mining industry are doing today, we do want the best environmental scientists working for our companies and for our sector as well. The mining sector does care about the environment, just as anybody else does. We do

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for the question. The latest statistics, at a national level, indicate that Canada will need about 112,000 skilled workers for the mining sector alone. It is estimated that about 10% of those are going to be located in British Columbia. So the issue for us is significa

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. Currently two sorts of partnerships have been created in B.C., one in the interior and the other one in the northwest, to increase aboriginal participation in the industry but also to create capacity for their own respective communities. One is the School of Explo

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much. Good morning. It is an important opportunity for us to speak with you this morning. What I would like to do in my seven minutes is to provide you with an overview of who we are, as far as the association is concerned, and with an overview of what the mining