The McGuinty government’s plan to protect the Northern boreal forest has left leaders in the mining and exploration industry wanting to know more.
In July, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that half of the province’s Far North boreal forests, some 225,000-square-kilometres, will be set aside for permanent protection.
The government says it will work with scientists, First Nations, communities and the resource industry to “create a broad plan for sustainable development.”
Ontario Mining Association (OMA) spokesman Peter McBride says the Premier’s “surprising” announcement was wide-ranging in language but short on specifics.
McGuinty’s conservation-oriented pledge covered a broad range of topics including climate change, endangered species, modifying Ontario’s Mining Act and relations and revenue sharing with First Nations.
“This announcement was wearing a whole bunch of sets of clothes that I don’t think go together,” says McBride, whose group represents 59 mining companies, suppliers, consulting firms and research organizations.
While there is no immediate impact on their mineral-producing members, McBride says “there’s concern about what it means for the future.”
Though the government is far from determining what particular areas will be protected in this country roughly north of the 51st parallel, the process is expected to take 10 to 15 years.
McBride says it could take longer since there’s a lack of “accurate and reliable” data on what natural resources, wildlife habitat, and even basic community infrastructure is up there.
“It’s going to be an open-ended process that’s going to take a long time.”
McBride says industry has been one step ahead of Queen’s Park on the revenue sharing front with 40 impact-benefit agreements signed between miners and First Nation communities.
Thunder Bay prospector Garry Clark says if the province is committed to mapping the Far North and taking action on reviewing the Mining Act, “we’re happy the government is finally moving forward on this."
Some of this scientifically-based data collection of the region has already been started under the Northern Boreal Initiative.
As head of the Ontario Prospectors Association, Clark says any land use planning that removes the uncertainty about Ontario as a favourable mining jurisdiction is good for investment.
“If we’re involved from the beginning, I think it mitigates any loss of high potential mineral lands.”
Though curious about what areas will be protected, he doesn’t expect huge swaths of land to be closed off to exploration.
“We don’t see a change in the way we operate there. It didn’t say we can’t stake claims.
It’s a green light to still explore and mines take a long time to develop anyway.”
He expects the province will back up this kind of effort with a large-scale geological study to determine where the best mineral deposits are.
Many remote communities are lobbying for all-weather roads which may cross into ecologically sensitive areas. Proper planning between mining, forestry and environmental interests can create a road network between future mineral deposits that can benefit all, Clark says.
“Ecological stuff doesn’t trump good rocks and vice versa.”
Clark says the industry has plenty of common ground with the environmental movement in working toward more conciliatory and practical solutions.
“The days of us throwing rocks at each other are gone. They garner a lot of public support, so we try to work with them.”
He supports revenue sharing for First Nations as long as it’s drawn from taxes already assessed to mines.
