EDITORIAL PAGE –Industry should address communication

It seems every developing country in the world is laying out the red carpet for Canadian mining companies. At home in Canada, the carpet has been rolled up and packed away.

Part of the blame rests with the industry itself. Its past environmental performance has been sub-par by today’s standards. (Like it or not, the yardstick of the past will continue to be applied today until the industry communicates its current environmental triumphs.)

The industry also scores poorly in its public image. (Again, like it or not, the Westray mine explosion and Yellowknife mine murders are, in the public mind, the industry’s defining images of 1992.) Both problems — the environmental question and the industry’s public image — are primarily problems in communication. The industry must address these.

However, there is also the political factor, which has considerably damaged mining in Canada.

For evidence, consider a remarkable, and ultimately depressing, passage headed “Lack of Stability” in Falconbridge’s 1992 annual report. The document lauds the potential for new mines in Canada. But in spite of this potential, mining companies are investing abroad, it states.

Falconbridge assures readers this exodus is not an escape from tough environmental regulations at home. (We might quibble with this point. Some regions of the world have more lax environmental regulations than does Canada. And some companies will take advantage of this.)

But the key point, according to Falconbridge, is that countries like Chile have business climates that “are relatively stable and predictable.” Relatively stable and predictable. The knock against countries such as Chile and Mexico in the past was that they were the very epitome of instability and unpredictability. Investing in any country south of the Rio Grande was once anathema to the risk-averse. Now, investing north of the Rio Grande is the riskier proposition.

Chilean environmental regulations may be becoming increasingly rigorous, Falconbridge points out, but at least “they are consistently applied.” Not so in Canada.

Even when mining companies meet the standards and follow the necessary steps to obtain permits, there is no guarantee that those permits will be granted. Hundreds of thousands of exploration dollars go down the drain “because other pressures preclude our governments from allowing our projects to proceed.” It’s little wonder Falconbridge packed up its Vancouver exploration office and headed south. It’s also little wonder the Chilean mines minister, Alejandro Hales, is quoted in a Canadian newspaper as saying: “It seems Chile is getting the meat and Canada is stuck with the bone.”