Mine development times have to improve and more workers must be recruited in order for the province, and the country, to take advantage of the $130 billion worth of investment expected to take place across Canada in the next five years, according to the president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC).
Pierre Gratton, who was joined by Ontario Mining Association president Chris Hodgson at a luncheon sponsored by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 25, said Canada is poised to reap the spinoffs from the demand for commodities that will rise over the next two decades.
And Sudbury, with its strong service and supply sector and educational institutions standing by to train the next generation of miners, can be a major beneficiary.
“You have the advantage of having the largest integrated mining complex in the world with one of the largest nickel-copper sulphide deposits in the world,” Gratton told a crowd gathered for the event. “You've got major companies like Vale and Xstrata who've shown the capacity that large companies like these two have with billions of dollars being invested in the region in the next number of years with new projects and environmental studies.”
Canada is expected to see “unprecedented” demand for commodities in the next 20 years, as developing countries like China, India and Brazil start expanding and demanding a more modern, Western lifestyle, Hodgson said.
However, it currently takes an estimated 10 to 15 years to develop a new mine, due to the environmental permitting process. Time is ticking if Canada wants to take advantage of this growth.
“We have a window of opportunity that we need to take advantage of,” Hodgson said.
“We accept our responsibility to ensure that the impacts we're going to have are mitigated and managed; we accept that as part of the equation,” Gratton added. “But we do ask that our government do this in a way that's efficient.”
In meeting this new demand, Canada and Ontario will face some additional challenges, including, like other trades, worker shortages.
Gratton suggested Aboriginal workers could be a panacea to the problem, noting that Aboriginal training programs and agreements for employment with the mining companies are now being implemented. Women and new Canadians are additional demographics that have yet to be tapped into.
On a provincial level, Hodgson believes Ontario is being given a golden opportunity. With some of the most stringent safety requirements and environmental standards in the world, the province has an advantage over its competitors.
The OMA has set out a list of 10 recommendations it is lobbying the government to implement. At the top of the list is reducing mine development times.
“If mining is going to take place, it should take place here where our citizens can achieve that benefit,” Hodgson said. “Now is the time we get at it. We can waste the next 10 or 15 years talking about it, or we can try to shorten those development times.”
