Act needs changes

I might be accused of being paranoid in stating that British Columbia’s Mines Act and Mineral Exploration Code discriminate against prospectors, but I have come to this conclusion through my own experience.

For two years I have been frustrated by bureaucratic badgering in attempts to get a section of deactivated logging road reconstructed for access to my claims. At present, I have $1,000 tied up in a security deposit that won’t be returned unless I backfill a trench excavated to expose a vein across that same deactivated road grade. My point is that the logging operation, on Crown land and directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forests, was not required to backfill and revegetate rock cuts, so why should a prospector with a comparatively insignificant excavation be required to do so? I maintain that that is discrimination.

The ways things are, the rights of the individual are of no consequence in this country, and prospectors are individuals too. I don’t imagine I’m the only one being stymied in this fashion. Nonetheless, we continue to record assessment work, often on falsified statements, because it is impossible, under the circumstances, to carry out legitimate work programs; or perhaps pay cash in lieu of work. The government keeps getting our money, and that is all anyone, from the deputy minister on down, is concerned about. What we need is an organization that could take some firm action, such as forcing a moratorium on assessment work and staking until changes are made. But, of course, that won’t happen.

There is a positive aspect to all of this — an opportunity for entrepreneurs to pick up some good prospects on the cheap and hang on to them until changes are made. And there will have to be changes, or there won’t be any new mines in British Columbia.

Walter Guppy

Tofino, B.C.

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