Environmental concerns top CIM conference

Compliance with environmental regulations and the minimization of the risk of causing damage to the natural environment appear to be foremost in the minds of Canadian miners. Twenty-two presentations, out of 177 delivered at the 92nd annual general meeting of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM), were environment-related.

The second most popular topic involved computer applications in the industry. Fifteen papers were presented on this subject.

The issue of sustainable development came up early in the meetings when William Winegard, minister of state for science and technology, addressed the opening plenary session.

“The application of science and technology will be absolutely essential to your ability to respond to your responsibility for mining and metallurgy that is environmentally sustainable,” Winegard said.

The next speaker, Sir Bruce Watson, chairman of MIM Holdings of Australia, had another message.

“Somehow, we have to develop an understanding within communities that improved standards of living require more resources and that resources can be supplied on an acceptable environmental basis,” he said.

The public relations effort required to develop such an understanding will be a tough one to mount, said Michael Adams, president of Environics Research Group.

According to an April, 1990, poll by Environics involving 2,000 Canadians, mining industry employees are more cynical than the general public concerning the industry’s environmental track record.

“Your front-line ambassadors may not be goodwill ambassadors,” Adams said.

“The lack of dialogue between the industry and special-interest groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc., is a dangerous stance,” Toronto-based environmental consultant Maxine Wiber said.

Speaking in a later session on environmental impact and pollution control, Wiber was joined by lawyer Roger Cotton in sounding the alarm.

“It’s easy to be cynical about sustainable development,” Cotton said, “but I’m not.”

Just as the legal phrases “the reasonable man” and “take all reasonable care” have been interpreted by judges in hundreds of cases over the years, Cotton says judges are going to be more than happy to interpret the phrase “sustainable development.”

“It (sustainable development) could easily find its way into the law,” Cotton cautioned.

The Ontario and federal governments can levy fines up to $1 million per day for environmental offences and can even imprison company directors found responsible for non-compliance.

“I think it’s pathetic that we would put someone in jail for turning a valve the wrong way,” environmental engineer Keith Phinney of Monenco Engineering of Fredericton, N.B., said. “I don’t think we’ve reached the stage where we don’t need the wealth-creating industries such as mining.”

A mine engineer in the audience disagreed. “We should go to jail for stupidity,” he said. “I think it’s high time the mining industry got its butt kicked around.”

At presstime, Jake Epp, minister of Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, was scheduled to address delegates.