Mineral exploration in northern Manitoba has taken a nosedive, prompting a scathing assessment of provincial policy from one of the region’s best-known geologists.
Stephen Masson, president of the Manitoba-Saskatchewan Prospectors and Developers Association, accuses the provincial government of shackling exploration through inaction and overzealous land protections.
“The balance between the economy and [land] protection is greatly skewed on the side of protection, and the provincial government seems blind to it,” he wrote in the latest issue of Northern Prospector, the association’s official publication.
Masson acknowledged that various factors have caused exploration companies to scale back their work across Canada, meaning fewer discoveries are being made.
But government policy is making matters worse in northern Manitoba, he said, citing the province’s “obsession” with restricting economic development by declaring growing segments of land as parkland.
“This obsession of the Manitoba government is not just misguided but [is] in open disregard of the economic well-being of other stakeholders in the province, as well as the economic well-being of the province itself,” wrote Masson, a Flin Flon area resident.
“There is a high probability that as yet undiscovered mining camps and the benefits of enormous wealth are now lost forever, being covered by the huge parks of Manitoba, and still this land grab for parks continues unimpeded.”
Masson said over 25 per cent of northern Manitoba is now restricted from exploration, with the government pushing to make it 50 per cent.
But Innovation, Energy and Mines Minister Dave Chomiak said those figures are inaccurate.
Chomiak said he thinks about 25 per cent of northern Manitoba falls under protected areas, but he said this does not necessarily bar exploration on those lands.
“Some of that area has mineral licences. A lot of it doesn’t,” he said. “There is [a] possibility of doing exploration in some of those areas.”
As for the claim that the province wants to increase protected lands to 50 per cent of the North, Chomiak was succinct in his denial: “We’re not going to 50 per cent.”
He said the province is looking at additional protected lands, but he could not give an indication of how large the areas would be other than to say total protected lands will cover less than 50 per cent of the North.
Land-protection plans now in the works include Polar Bear Park, designed to protect polar bears in Churchill, and long-discussed Inuit land claims involving Manitoba and Nunavut, Chomiak said.
He said a committee that includes representation from the mineral sector looks at plans for protected areas and that the process involves public hearings.
There is also a pledge that mineral exploration can occur on those lands before they become protected, Chomiak said.
“We’ve covered off trying to protect mining capacity and protect the ability to preserve land into the future,” he said. “So it’s not simply a question of saying, ‘We’re heading for a target [for land protection].’ We’re not. We’re heading for a balance.”
In his published statement, Masson was also critical of what he called the province’s failure to address First Nation communities’ right to consultation on mineral projects.
First Nations are objecting to “the whole process” as a result, he wrote, meaning exploration permits are being held up.
“Some attention is finally being directed here but it is painfully slow,” Masson added.
Chomiak defended the province’s direction. He said First Nations are for the first time being included in land-use planning discussions and that a committee involving nine Chiefs has been struck relative to mineral projects.
He said further progress was made at last week’s Manitoba Mining and Minerals Convention, where the province offered First Nations a share of provincial revenues that come from mining.
Chomiak said the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has called Manitoba’s First Nations engagement process a model for the rest of the country.
Nonetheless, as Masson wrote, mineral exploration has plummeted in Manitoba more so than in any other province despite exploration incentives offered by the provincial government.
“Investors and exploration companies have voted with their feet and are either not investing or leaving the province to explore elsewhere,” he said.
Chomiak said a key reason for the sharp plummet is the large amount of money spent to explore Hudbay’s Lalor and Reed properties before they quickly became mines.
The absence of those dollars today makes the decline appear worse than it perhaps is, he said, adding that more exploration is taking place in Manitoba this year compared to last year.
In describing the decline of mineral exploration across Canada, Masson cited reasons ranging from a shortage of funds for junior companies, to rising regulatory costs.
The lack of cash available to exploration companies, he wrote, has caused them to divert their limited budgets into known, less risky mineralization and little, if any, into new targets.
“Exploration of new targets, although of higher risk, is required to revitalize the industry and increase the discovery rate,” wrote Masson.
Chomiak said he has sympathy for prospectors, calling the current market “really tough” amid low commodity prices.
“But to say that we’re worse than anybody else is not accurate,” he added.
