Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, we're a fairly small organization of about 160 people and most of the work execution in the field is through contract support. We do hire other participants in the industry to support us; it's not just the nuclear industry that provides us support. The second part

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Not oil drilling per se, but we look for drilling companies. I think the entire drilling program would be similar to others who are doing this, but through contract support. They may support an oil and gas firm as much they would support our program, because at the end of the day

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. We looked for volunteer communities to raise their hands. There were 22 communities. There were some in Saskatchewan as well. Over time, we've done the studies and have focused more narrowly now on ones with suitable rock plus a willing host.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The current production of nuclear power is primarily in Ontario, but it's also in New Brunswick. Quebec had a facility that has since been shut down.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we would look at is the safety. We know that it's safe to transport. Whether it's truck or rail, it's safe to transport the used fuel. It goes in certified packages, which are tested to make sure it's safe to do so. Part of our program will be to go out and talk to the commu

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Canada's plan is to site a deep geologic repository for all of Canada's waste, so it's not—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There would be just one for the used fuel, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The educational opportunities are varied within our organization. Yes, we would need engineering positions. We need skilled trades, which is probably the bigger part of what we need, and other technician-level training is required, but not necessarily university education. It dep

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The site selection process started with 22, and we've been working through both the safety thinking around that and the willingness, to where we are today, which is five communities all based in Ontario. The current situation would include consideration of a site located in Ontar

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think this is a really important aspect, and it's something that I focus a lot of my effort on, both for indigenous people as well as for gender balance. I think it's about attracting people into the science, technology, engineering and math programs at a university level, but

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My company is funded solely by those companies, so all of our programs are funded through that. I would say, however, on each one of those companies' behalfs, that they also have indigenous programs. In fact, I was at the Darlington energy complex, which is one of the largest inf

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Seven per cent sounds like a low percentage—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  —but when you look across the population of indigenous people who are available, it is generally representative of that. Further than that, what we are looking for is to bring indigenous people into our line of work, which requires that there is a certain amount of investment in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll step back a bit. To select a community, we have three criteria that we focus on. One is safety. I think this is where your question is coming to. We need to understand if the rock in the area, if you will, is suitable for siting a deep geologic repository. Part of the work w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is currently policy direction from the government with respect to management of nuclear waste. There is policy that requires the owners of the waste to put in place steps to manage all of the waste they're responsible for, whether it's used fuel or low and intermediate or l