International Trade committee  That's fair enough. In the Canadian context, mining is the largest employer of indigenous Canadians. Companies frequently consult with their communities about the projects that are ongoing within Canada.

International Trade committee  With respect to free trade agreements with other countries, that would not be a subject that indigenous communities have brought to us as a priority of theirs.

International Trade committee  In the interest of giving a short answer, I can only go into so much detail, but I'd be happy to give the committee some documentation if that would also be helpful. MAC has a program called Towards Sustainable Mining. It's a mandatory practice for all of our members' Canadian o

International Trade committee  I'm not going to speak about the tariffs for accessing product, because in this instance, a lot of the products that are produced in both Canada and Argentina or Brazil aren't exported to the other jurisdiction; they're brought to international markets. When you think about China

International Trade committee  Yes, exactly—

International Trade committee  Sure. I'm confident that, given the longevity of this committee's study of this opportunity, there's been briefing on the instability in recent years in Argentina in particular. However, I would also suggest that the country has recently undertaken a relatively significant reform

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee, clerk, and fellow attendees. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today and contribute to the committee's study of this important topic. On behalf of the Mining Association of Canada I'm pleased to communicate MAC's support for

International Trade committee  I would say two things. One is that those service supply sectors don't just build new mines. We have 77 metal mines currently operating in Canada. We have oil sands mines, we have non-metal mines, diamonds in the north, etc. There is still significant demand for service and suppl

International Trade committee  I'd underscore one thing very quickly. There's apprehension amongst the Canadian mining industry about Canada's competitiveness as a place to do business. It's not just a market reality. We've seen prices increase year over year, for two years consecutively. We've seen other juri

International Trade committee  There's an attractive ecosystem. There are benefits to being listed here through networking, through close proximity to other areas of expertise that are directly and indirectly related to your core business.

International Trade committee  Well, that's a fair point, and the reality is nothing is preventing them from moving to another jurisdiction if there is a more compelling benefit to being there than being here.

International Trade committee  Lost, found wealth.

International Trade committee  Toronto's a mining town. Effectively, it would slowly cease to be a mining town with significant economic implications, not just for the city—

International Trade committee  —but for the province, as well as for the country.

International Trade committee  It's possible. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not an expert in gender-related trade issues, but I can tell you from a hard competitiveness standpoint that tax implications, other competitiveness, economic implications are probably greater drivers that I'm more familiar with, which w