A new breed of rocker

The Cordilleran Roundup, held each year in Vancouver, B.C., is a grand event for the western exploration and mining fraternity (though not quite what it was in its glory years) and an excellent opportunity for old friends to catch up on new discoveries. What’s different now from past decades is that most of the discoveries are not in the province, and many of the old friends have scattered to the four corners of the earth.

To hear the old-timers tell the tale, things haven’t been the same since the early 1990s, when environmentalists dressed up as trees and bears in an effort to prevent the Windy Craggy project from being developed as a mine. The mining industry took to the streets to show its support for the project. Unfortunately, they got considerably less media attention than the endangered trees and bears. We suspect it was because the male geologists refused to wear dresses to show their sensitive side and the prospectors wouldn’t dye their hair purple to show they were cool rocker dudes.

Then-premier Michael Harcourt and his New Democratic Party government must have been bowled over by the eco-drama that was being played out on the evening news, because it wasn’t long before the battle of Windy Craggy was over. The sizable and almost fully developed copper deposit, along with one of the most geologically prospective regions in the province, is now part of a wilderness park — permanently put on ice, as it were.

However, B.C.’s mining community is made up of pragmatic souls, who, if need be, simply move over to the next geologically prospective valley. After all, the province is big enough for both mines and parks. Unfortunately, no matter where they go, the last-remaining-wilderness battle cry has followed them.

Environmentalists took to the streets to save Stein Valley, Clayquot Sound and a host of other last-remaining forests and watersheds. Frustrated beyond words, the mining community joined a province-wide land-planning process in hopes that, at the end of the day, there would be peace in the valley.

No such luck. Enough was never enough. A new list of endangered wildernesses cropped up. The Great Bear Forest, the Stoltman Wilderness, the Lillooet Rainshadow Wilderness . . . the list goes on. Eventually, the mining industry pulled out of the land-planning farce.

British Columbia’s mining industry is now but a shadow of what it once was. The province’s economy is in shambles, and much of the mining industry has fled to more welcoming jurisdictions. Although Vancouver has retained its status as a leading centre for venture capital, the city will lose its pool of mining talent unless something is done to encourage them to explore and develop properties in their home province.

A recent poll taken by Versus Group International suggests that 95% of B.C. residents would support an increase in mining activity provided there is economic benefit and protection for the environment. The strong support reflects concerns about the economy, which out-polled environmental concerns by a margin of nearly three-to-two.

The B.C. government has tried, in recent years, to reverse some of its onerous policies, but for the most part, it has been a case of too little too late. The industry hasn’t done a good enough job communicating its message either, with only a few people aware that mining (past and present) has disturbed one-tenth of 1% of the provinces’ land mass. In the absence of a strong voice speaking out for sustainable development, environmental groups are intensifying their efforts to make most of the province a wilderness preserve.

The citizens of British Columbia are paying a hefty price for government mismanagement of the land-planning exercise. Rather than listen to the sensible people who sat down in good faith to work out sensible solutions, the government allowed the agenda to be high-jacked by protestors dressed up as trees and bears.

The land-use battle still rages in the province, even after environmental groups got what they wanted, and then some. Something is wrong with this picture. What do sensible people have to do to have their voices heard? Shave their heads? March on Victoria? Chain themselves to a Starbucks outlet?

Maybe that’s what the folks at next year’s Cordilleran Roundup ought to be talking about, instead of trying to create wealth for an ungrateful province. It sounds silly to recommend demonstrations, theatrics and grandstanding, and yet politicians seem to respond to that sort of thing.

We don’t understand it. Maybe it has something to do with having a really short attention span.