For the first time since 1980, Canada is without a federal minister of state for mines. The change, part of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s recent cabinet shuffle, has so far drawn mixed reactions from mining representatives.
The restructuring means there is no longer a minister of state for mines reporting to the minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. Gerald Merrithew, the former minister of state for mines and forestry, has been appointed minister of veterans affairs. Forestry has been made a separate portfolio under Gerry St. Germain, while Marcel Masse remains minister of EMR.
Barry Litsett, spokesperson for minerals policy at EMR, said the organization of his department and the resources devoted to the mining sector remain the same. When asked why the mines portfolio was shifted entirely to EMR, he replied: “I can’t say — that is a decision of the prime minister.”
“Presumably,” Litsett added, “the feeling is that the single minister of EMR now has adequate time to devote to both energy and mines. On the energy side, the government has moved to a deregulated system, and a lot of that deregulation is pretty well in place.”
George Miller, president of the Mining Association of Canada, agrees. “By 1980, owing to the oil crisis, energy had become an overwhelming priority of the government. As a result, the minister of EMR couldn’t spend enough time on mining, which is why the minister of state for mines was appointed.
“On the other hand, energy has been deregulated and is decreasing in importance now, so it could be that an able minister of EMR could devote sufficient time to mining.”
An example of deregulation is the phasing out of large government grants for drilling in the off- shore and frontier regions of Canada as outlined in the previous Liberal government’s National Energy Program.
When asked whether the mining community might interpret the cabinet shuffle as a sign that Ottawa is attaching little importance to the mining sector, Miller said: “If that’s the case, we (the Mining Association) would be pretty upset, but we’re not reading it that way.”
William Rompkey is. The federal mines critic and former Liberal minister of state for mines (in 1984) said the mining community will be upset over the dumping of the ministry of state for mines, and that the government will lose some support in the mining sector.
“This is another symptom of the low priority which mining is receiving under this government,” he told The Northern Miner. “It’s a symptom similar to the one we experienced when the government (under tax reform) was trying to do away with flow-through shares for mineral exploration. The government obviously hadn’t given enough thought to that policy, or else it just didn’t care.” Ottawa ultimately decided to retain the basic flow-through structure, but in a less attractive form.
When asked whether Marcel Masse will be able to perform satisfactorily as the only minister responsible for mines, Rompkey replied:
“No. I think mining will get lost in the shuffle and will be relegated to second- or third-class status. It will once again become just another section of a department. This is unfortunate, because the mining community definitely benefitted from having a minister to whom it could approach directly.”
He described the cabinet shuffle as “politically motivated” and said the changes reveal three attitudes of the government towards mining: “1) that the mining community doesn’t have much political impact; 2) that mining is not important to the economy; and 3) that the mines are in areas where the Conservatives don’t hope to make any gains.”
The appointment of British Columbia MP Gerry St. Germain (Mission-St. Moody) to a separate ministry of forestry and Ontario MP John McDermid (Brampton- Georgetown) to a new ministry of housing are pre-election ploys to reverse the Tories’ sagging popularity in British Columbia and Toronto, Rompkey said.
Judy Erola, who was the first minister of state for mines (1980 to 1983), told The Northern Miner that the elimination of mining as a separate portfolio shows that the government is “downgrading” the industry.
“It was only when the mining sector had a separate ministry that we were able to bring in remedial measures, such as flow-through,” she said.
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