For several years, politicians and the mining industry have targeted Canadian regulations standing in the way of feeding a burgeoning critical minerals market.
A new audit released Wednesday claims to blow a hole in that story. The study, published in the Royal Society of Canada journal FACETS, brought together researchers from Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia to examine 27 B.C. mines granted environmental assessments since 1995 with plans to open by 2022.
“These fly directly in the face of this narrative that these mines are delayed by regulation,” Dempsey said. “It's very appealing right now to look forward with dollar signs in your eyes at the cash cow of critical mineral mining,” said Collard. “Each mine is different, but we need the provincial government to streamline the mine permitting process while maintaining B.C.’s world-leading environmental protections,” he said.
Glacier Media questioned the Ministry of Natural Resources over Wilkinson’s statements on mining regulatory delays. A spokesperson said it could not meet this story’s deadline and would respond within two days. “Often the trade-off is said to be the jobs and economic benefits. And yet we’re not really seeing those come to fruition,” she said.
One outlier included the Brucejack mine in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern B.C., where sufficient tax data showed it produced only seven per cent of the corporate tax revenue the company had initially projected.