EDITORIAL PAGE — Petrina shoulders a big load

There is an absence of leadership when it comes to mining issues that has left the industry to flounder just at the time it needs a firm hand at the helm.

The industry, probably too busy trying to stay competitive, has been unable to pull together all the people who have a vested interest in mining. But government, labor, environmentalists and aboriginal people, who have a direct stake in mining, have also avoided the responsibility of leadership. The Mines Ministers conference in Whitehorse, Yukon, this summer may have set the stage to change that. At the suggestion of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), the provincial and federal mines ministers are putting together an action plan for the industry. Modelled after the Canada Forest Accord signed earlier this year, the action plan would include the aspirations of a variety of interest groups.

A consensus-building process such as this, however, needs a leader to bring the various parties together and keep the idea on track.

One expects to find leadership from government, but there has been a resounding silence from elected representatives. Environmentalists and aboriginal groups have their own agenda and, although they may want to influence the decisions, they are not likely to take the lead. Labor, for the most part, seems locked in an outdated struggle against management without realizing that both rely on the industry’s profitability.

So it has fallen to industry — the MAC — to take the bull by the horns. At Whitehorse, it used the forest industry’s agreement as a “prototype.” As the text is heavily weighted with buzz words (environmentalists, for example, get references to “ecosystems”; business gets “competitive position”), it is easy to dismiss the accord as window dressing.

But it is an achievement simply to get a variety of groups to accept that they have common objectives, that they can work together to achieve them and that one group’s success does not preclude others’ success.

Ultimately, the job of pushing this initiative through will fall directly on the shoulders of Placer Dome Vice-Chairman Tony Petrina, who is just beginning a 2-year term as MAC chairman. He resigned as president of Placer Dome in September, expressing the intention to become more involved in industry issues. He will be able to devote a considerable amount of time and effort to this initiative. His long and varied career in mining, straightforward manner and international perspective are just what is needed for the job.

For the past decade the pendulum of public support has swung away from the mining industry. Once welcomed by government, labor and local communities, it has fallen into disfavor. But the pendulum is beginning to swing back with the weight of the industry’s economic contribution in its favor, and Petrina may be able to catch this wave of changing public opinion.

We’ve cited the statistics many times — 100,000 people directly employed; 4.4% of GDP; 17% of all Canadian exports; $10.8 billion in trade surplus. Those numbers are beginning to be appreciated. The industry’s honest efforts to meet Canadians’ demand for environmentally sound operations and changing attitude to northern development, including the role of aboriginal people, should make it clear to all stakeholders that a vital and prosperous mining industry will benefit everyone.