Does the PC government’s mining strategy go far enough in supporting an industry so crucial to Flin Flon and the rest of northern Manitoba?
Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Cliff Cullen, whose portfolio includes mining, outlined his government’s approach at a meeting of local political and business leaders last week.
Emphasizing that Manitoba has the resources to fuel new mines, Cullen detailed a plan to encourage prospecting. It includes a clearer process around the duty to consult with First Nations on new mining projects.
The failure of existing duty-to-consult policies was highlighted in dramatic fashion in 2013 when Pukatawagan’s Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (MCCN) protested Hudbay’s Lalor and Reed mines near Snow Lake.
MCCN claimed it had not been properly consulted on the developments and twice set up road blockades near Lalor. Hudbay found itself in the middle of a dispute between MCCN and the then-NDP government until a court order eventually prohibited further blockades.
While the MCCN affair ended with minimal disruption to mining operations, it garnered a lot of press. Some have speculated the episode may have made mining companies and investors wary of doing business in northern Manitoba.
First Nations are natural and deserving partners in new mining developments, something Hudbay has been saying for years.
But those partnerships must be forged within clear parameters and specific timeframes, and the process cannot be allowed to veer off the rails if one side or the other does not get all of its demands met.
The same goes for the general permitting process for new mines. Whereas a generation ago new mines were generally greeted with open arms as the economic boosters they are, today there is an increasingly extreme brand of environmentalism that appears dedicated to quashing any and all resource development.
Environmentalists opposing Hudbay’s proposed Rosemont mine in Arizona, for instance, indicate they will pull every regulatory lever possible to stop or delay that project. This is certainly their right, and environmental safeguards are necessary, but one worries whether too much power is being concentrated in too few hands.
Manitoba’s former NDP government demonstrated it could ignore the voices of environmental extremism within its base by approving Hudbay’s Lalor and Reed mines in short order. Lalor, for instance, went from discovery to first blast in about three years.
But sometime after Lalor, things changed. People in the mining industry started voicing more concerns about onerous regulations and of inexplicable mining prohibitions across vast swaths of land.
No one advocates reckless development or handing free rein to mining companies, but if the scales have tipped too far in favour of one side, then it’s time for some counterbalance. Mining is and will continue to be the key to northern Manitoba’s economy.
Despite low metal prices and concerns over the current regulatory framework, Hudbay and junior miners continue to pump exploration dollars into the Flin Flon-Snow Lake region. At the end of the day, companies just want to locate viable ore deposits so they can make money.
Cullen and others are confident northern Manitoba has the viable deposits. Now it’s up to him and his government to responsibly tear down the barriers preventing their discovery and development – and fast.
Local Angle is published on Fridays.
