Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this Mineral Development Strategy is something
that’s underway. I know we’ve got a lot of happy industry out there. I’m not sure that that’s totally in line with the public interest, but we seem to be handing the strategy over to them and saying go for it.
But I want to bounce off the Minister the statement that we don’t need more mines as much as we need more residents working in the mines we have, and better economic rent or return from the extraction of our resources and then replacement of mines as they reach the end of production. A good way to do this would be to put an area up for bid when we need more development with the appropriate lead time, recognizing it takes five to 10 years. Then, of course, we’d have trained people ready for the jobs.
I know the Minister is familiar with the situation in Botswana where they own, I believe, 50 percent. The Minister is familiar with Norway, where the only resource and they contract out development with a guaranteed rate of return of about 9 percent for oil and gas. Obviously they’re, according to the Minister of Finance, up around $600 billion in their reserve fund now and investing it globally, because it’s so big that it affects the local economy if they start spending it locally. These guys have an assured future. Can we go there?