Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Canadians live in a very increasingly smaller world and everywhere we look, we need partnership and understanding. As such, the global world increasingly needs Canada and especially the North. Mr. Speaker, Canada ships and receives goods, material and minerals all over the world. What is hot today in the world market changes on a dime and this can affect the North.
Today I would like to speak about a particular case in point. I will start with the consumer’s side of the market. We hear a lot about greening our world and working on reducing reliance on fossil fuels. To that end, new and expanding industries are emerging from environmental technologies. These industries certainly need raw materials. One resource that is in great demand is called rare earth minerals. This resource, according to the Wall Street Journal, is an important element for wind turbines, especially hybrid cars, and certainly is indispensable for the world if we want to convert to electronic vehicles.
Japan is the world’s biggest importer of rare earth metals and it is companies like Toyota and Honda that use these metals. Right now, China has a near monopoly on the raw materials, with 95 percent dominance of the world’s supply. China is planning to reduce its export quota. Experts in Australia predict that the global supply will crash in three years.
Mr. Speaker, now does the name Thor Lake ring a bell? What about Avalon Rare Metals Incorporated? Avalon Rare Metals is a mineral exploration and development company and owner of the lake zone deposit on Thor Lake. That is just 100 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife. According to the
Canadian Mining News, the Thor Lake find is emerging as one of the largest undeveloped rare earth elements resources in the world. That makes the NWT one of the few potential sources, outside of China, for rare earth elements.
Mr. Speaker, many people in the NWT see this as an opportunity to help broaden our economic face, but the reputation sometimes it has in the view of many is the NWT is one of the worst environments to work in when you want to bring, discuss and develop economic opportunities.
Mr. Speaker, our government needs to tear down those walls, push aside those roadblocks and, certainly, snip that red tape. Mr. Speaker, with ever decreasing corporate revenues which are certainly taking a beating, we need to seize an opportunity such as this that will bring good corporate taxes and jobs to the North. Mr. Speaker, an environment that could either tax cut, I would say let’s foster growth for our northerners and get them jobs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.