New BC mines minister known as Mr. Coal

William Bennett, the new minister of state for mining in British Columbia, is known throughout the provincial legislature as Mr. Coal, but that has nothing to do with his new title.

During his first Christmas as the member of legislative assembly for the riding of East Kootenay, home to the Elk Valley coalfields, Bennett sent all 79 legislature members a lump of coal wrapped in red paper. The message was not to imply that British Columbia MLAs had been less than upstanding citizens that year; rather that the coal industry is a significant contributor to the economy, pumping about $1 billion into provincial coffers from the five coal mines in Bennett’s riding alone.

Bennett, though, is not a native of the province. He grew up in the Red Lake area of northern Ontario and once worked at the Anvil-Vangorda lead-zinc-silver mine in the Yukon. He also operated a fly-in fishing lodge north of Lynn Lake, Man.

In 1976, he earned a degree in English from the University of Guelph and in 1992 a law degree from Queen’s University. Before being elected in 2001, Bennett was a partner in a law firm in Cranbrook, B.C. He served as president of the Kootenay Bar Association in 1998, and that same year was selected as Cranbrook’s business person of the year.

Bennett was re-elected in May and lobbied Premier Gordon Campbell for the mining portfolio.

“I asked the premier specifically to be the minister responsible for mining in B.C.,” says Bennett, adding that some other requests in the 23-person cabinet were turned down. “We committed to helping the mining industry in B.C. recover from its ten-year experience with the New Democratic Party, which was not pleasant.”

Indeed, when the Liberals were elected in 2001, exploration spending had fallen to $25 million. The new government abolished the sales tax on mining equipment, instituted a “one-stop” permitting process, and allotted more money for geoscience. These measures helped raise exploration spending to $130 million in 2004.

Bennett remains concerned about the billions being raised, and spent on off-shore projects, by British Columbia-based mining companies.

“I want to sit down and listen to people in investment firms and what they think is necessary to generate even more confidence in mining in B.C.,” says Bennett.

Bennett promises to work with environmental groups but insists the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He stresses that mining in the province generates more than $5 billion in revenue while disrupting only about 0.03% of the land.

“We need that revenue for health care; we need that revenue for education. I don’t take the position that mining won’t have any impact on the land base. It will have an impact, and I think society accepts that as long as the impact is reasonable and we’re not poisoning the landscape,” says Bennett.

Pat Bell, the former minister of state for mining, is now the minister of agriculture and lands.