Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I want to respond to Mr. McKay's comments. He alluded to a connection between the launching of e3 Plus and Bill C-300. In fact, e3 Plus had a predecessor called e3—you may not have known that—which was launched in 2003. In terms of the six allegations per year, all we were

Foreign Affairs committee  Not at all.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. First of all, my organization is not going to recommend that a company pull out of Canada. That's a decision they will make on their own.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, I just wanted to correct that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Good. So no, we want our companies to act responsibly wherever they work. But this particular bill will bring with it some very significant risks in terms of the fact that it is a government that's investigating. There's a very significant stigma that goes along with that and th

Foreign Affairs committee  I think so. If you want to add a level of accountability that does make some sense, I think the ombudsman approach is a good approach. This was the approach that was suggested by the CSR round table advisory committee group. A collaborative approach that looks at a situation, i

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have heard from some of our members that they consider Bill C-300 serious enough that they would contemplate relocating their head offices elsewhere if this comes into law.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it does. But I think a much more complicated issue is how are you going to conduct an investigation and hold companies in compliance with respect to guidelines in situations that are very flexible and change from one site to another? That's the most difficult situation I

Foreign Affairs committee  I absolutely agree with that. There are systemic problems. For that reason, we don't think it's amendable. It's like cutting an apple open, seeing a big bruise, trying to cut that out, seeing another one under it, cutting that one out, and then realizing that you have nothing lef

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to talk about this important subject. My name is Tony Andrews. I'm the executive director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. My colleague Bernarda Elizalde, before joining the PDAC, spen

Natural Resources committee  Sorry about that.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chairman, I'll start, if I may.

Natural Resources committee  Right now Canada is in a very good competitive position, but it really looks back at what we've done historically to become like we are and gain that position. There are some really key factors there, and I'd say the first one is our geoscience database. A geoscience database i

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chairman, maybe I can just talk to a small—

Natural Resources committee  Maybe I can answer the question with respect to smaller companies, starting with sustainable development programs. What the association, or PDAC, has done is to develop a program that we call environmental excellence in exploration. This is a web-based manual, if you want, of exp