Good morning, Chair and honourable members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

Over the past few months, you have received numerous testimonies outlining the problems facing Canada’s mining and exploration industries, and I would like to focus on the roles that academia can play in solving those problems.

To give you some background, I moved to Canada 15 years ago—probably 20 years ago now—for an opportunity to work in a country where there were close ties between the mining industry and academia. I spent years working in Australia with some of the pre-eminent ore-deposit research groups there, and I've been at Lakehead University for 15 years. I am currently the chair of the geology department and director of the centre of excellence for sustainable mining and exploration, or CESME.

I think you've been told a number of times that a healthy mining industry is essential to Canada and that the industry is not possible without exploration activities that will lead to new discoveries. Mining activity is vital for our economic development, but it must be done in an environmentally sustainable manner so that it benefits all the constituent communities. Groups like CESME, the centre of excellence for sustainable mining and exploration, with the support of government, can provide the cradle-to-grave research necessary to ensure that Canada is once again considered a leader in mineral exploration, mining development, and mining reclamation research.

There have been some amazing initiatives recently, like the Canadian Mining Innovation Council's footprints project, with 27 mining companies funding research, and the metal earth initiative at Laurentian University. These are good examples of how Canada is moving towards, and sort of following, the Australian model of focusing research in key, well-funded university research centres.

In order for mineral development to be successful, we need to consider not only those exploration features but also the full mining cycle, particularly meaningful engagement with first nations, as well as developing sustainable, green technologies for mining, exploration, and reclamation.

Mining has been one of the major pillars in the development of Canada and has contributed to its wealth and reputation as a resource-based economy. Although we have had many discoveries and scientific developments to aid in the discovery and extraction of minerals, there needs to be a change in the way that wealth from the industry is distributed if we are to make the industry socially and economically sustainable.

Too often the people of Canada have received only a small part of the value chain from mineral extraction. That is particularly evident in the indigenous communities. Research and policies that will lead to meaningful engagement with indigenous communities are long overdue. This involvement needs to be comprehensive, from business development and ownership to infrastructure development and decisions about royalties and benefit sharing.

The 2015 CESME published a policy paper called “The Role of Government Policy in Sustainable Mining Development” and we made a number of recommendations.

We suggested that regional, sustainable development frameworks that facilitate indigenous peoples’ participation in decision-making are sorely needed. We see moratoriums today in a number of communities, prohibiting mining and exploration. This speaks to those communities feeling that they are not being adequately consulted at this point. All levels of government need to develop plans that balance the needs of industry with those of local indigenous communities.

There is a need for an effective consultation process that addresses the principle of free, prior, and informed consent as laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is necessary to provide certainty for the proponents, but also to ensure that the rights of those indigenous communities are fully met.

There needs to be effective local community involvement because this can lead to lower costs by hiring locally and providing companies with a social licence that ensures greater public acceptance of large-scale projects. The New Gold project happening up in northern Ontario right now at Rainy River is a really good example of where that's working very well.

There is a need for a regional strategic approach to environmental assessment and the establishment of an indigenous monitoring program to oversee long-term environmental impacts. There is also a need for government guidance in encouraging transparency in impact benefit agreements and other forms of agreements between the private sector and indigenous communities, so that the sector as a whole can implement best practices and not put individual communities at a disadvantage because of lack of information.

From a green technology perspective, our research institutions must provide new materials and technologies that can increase the value chain of resource extraction and that can be easily adopted in remote settings where technology and expertise are often scarce. Canada’s natural resource industries and industry service providers must have access to advanced research facilities to characterize materials and processes and to maximize the natural resource value chain.

If I can, I'd like to finish with a number of recommendations.

We think it's important to facilitate easier access to post-secondary education for indigenous students to ensure there is that next generation of professionals, or that new generation of professionals, who can provide their communities with unbiased advice and guidance for future mineral development. There's presently an overreliance on consultants, who may not always have the best interests of those communities at heart.

We need to raise the awareness of the importance of mining in southern Ontario and the rest of southern Canada to ensure all of Canada benefits and recognizes the benefits of the vital industry.

We need to facilitate entrepreneurship in those indigenous communities to expand economic benefits from the mineral industry. It's really important that we establish best practices for industry and community partnerships, and that we facilitate funding for research that spans both the science and the social science fields to encourage collaboration and not competition between researchers.

There are many conflicting values between resource companies and communities. Companies want to advance projects, and communities want to protect rights. It's important to fund research that focuses on how this is being accomplished to allow projects to succeed with everyone feeling their values remain intact.

Thank you very much. I look forward to the discussion.

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