Conservationist calls for co-operation with mining

Monte Hummel, President Emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund Canada, called on both the mining community and environmental organizations to work towards a common understanding, during the Meet the Miners event at Queen’s Park on March 19, organized by the Ontario Mining Association.

Hummel, co-founder of clean-air crusaders Pollution Probe and author of several books about the environment, presented four issues that he felt could be addressed, to strengthen the relationship between conservationists and the mining industry.

“I am all for a profitable, responsible mining industry in Canada,” said Hummel, who sported a green “Keep Mining in Canada” button. “The question should not be should mining exist — the question should be under what terms and conditions should the industry operate?”

Hummel said he supports mining in Ontario as a beneficial industry but that the mining sector needs to build a “broader base of understanding and support.”

The first major issue is land access. Hummel explained that industry needs to designate some land for conservation but that conservationists must learn to accept that mining is important to small local communities and helps support their economies.

The second issue Hummel pointed out was the conflicting viewpoints on land usage. Mineral developers generally believe the highest principle of land use is for mining and resource extraction. Environmentalists often passionately disagree with this. Hummel called on miners to gain a better appreciation of the idea that sometimes land conservation has a higher value than the resources buried beneath the Earth’s surface. Hummel noted that since mining and mine development takes up such a small amount of land in Ontario (about 0.03% of the province) it would be in the best interests of both parties to work side by side to designate land usage.

The third issue the veteran environmentalist said is standing in the way of relations between First Nations, environmentalists and the mining industry, is the practice of double standards and poor land-use planning by the government.

Hummel said that the government’s designation of land rights to several different groups vying for the same area is often problematic and can be easily avoided by better land-use planning and by not promising land to more than one group.

The fourth issue is the Mining Act. Hummel said the act is outdated and in dire need of review and revision. The majority of the last revisions to the Mining Act in the 1990s were aimed at planning for mine closures and financial assurance to complete the closures.

In closing, Hummel encouraged the mining industry to “get ahead of the curve and show leadership to resolve problems.”