Mines Minister Mungall addresses a B.C. mining exploration sector facing challenges
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 02:04:01 +0000
Energy and Mines Minister Michelle Mungall greeted a mining-exploration sector that is looking for more certainty, clarity and speed from government on permitting its activities as she helped open its annual convention in Vancouver on Monday.
Mungall is “a fabulous supporter” of mining, said Kendra Johnston, CEO of the Association of Mineral Exploration B.C., but exploration firms need certainty around the timeliness of permits and consistency around permit requirements.
“Government is well aware of the issues industry has been having,” Johnston said.
Mungall, along with Paul Lefebvre, the federal parliamentary secretary for natural resources, helped open the Association for Mineral Exploration’s 2020 Roundup convention, which brings together more than 5,000 delegates from industry, government and First Nations for one of the biggest technical conferences on mining exploration in Canada.
As the 2020 conference opened, however, mineral exploration is also a sector facing its challenges. B.C. has seen no new mines open in the last two years, B.C. Liberal forestry critic John Rustad pointed out during a panel with Mungall and Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Scott Fraser.
And Rustad added that B.C. needs to improve on permitting issues that see work delayed, which makes the province appear less attractive as a destination for mining investment, which is important in a jurisdiction where mining makes a significant contribution to the province’s export sector.
“British Columbia produces more than half the copper we produce in Canada,” Rustad said during the panel discussion. “It’s very important that we have the chain of new mines (ready) to come on to keep our industry healthy.”
“(For) companies around the world, (their) money can go anywhere, they can invest anywhere. They look for jurisdictions where they can be successful and earn a return,” Rustad said.
On the panel, a combative Mungall said that some of the problems that have led to delays in permitting were legacies left behind by the previous government, which Rustad was a part of, but last year this government committed $20 million to rectifying problems.
“(We are) putting more boots on the ground,” Mungall said. “And those boots on the ground are all about building regulatory excellence.”
Mungall said the $20 million per year that government injected into her ministry was also about honouring a commitment to separate the enforcement of permits from the issuing of permits within the ministry, which is something then Auditor General Carole Bellringer said should be done in her examination of the 2014 Mount Polley tailings dam failure.
The additional money is “the cost of doing business,” Mungall said.
Mungall’s opening remarks were boosterish about the possibility B.C. can be “the No. 1 jurisdiction in the world for mineral exploration.”
However, Mungall encouraged delegates to consider putting B.C.’s high environmental standards and social requirements, such as efforts to enact the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with Bill 41 into that sales pitch on competitiveness.
Just as forest industry brands products as responsibly produced through marks such as the Forest Stewardship Council certification, B.C. should consider setting standards for responsible metals.
One acronym used to sum up so-called responsible investing is ESG, which refers to environmental, social and governance responsibility, Mungall said, and it is one of the fastest growing investment segments in the world.
“When we talk about ESG investing, let us also brand what we’re doing,” Mungall said. “Let us tell the world this is the standard everybody should be (following.)”