EDITORIAL PAGE Putting the purse strings in local hands

When it comes to devising imaginative ways to support key industries like mineral exploration, Quebec is in a class of its own. Its version of flow-through share financing and its Stock Savings Plan are two examples of the province marching to the beat of a different drummer — and meeting with a reasonably high level of success.

Particularly intriguing is a new plan launched by Quebec mines minister Lise Bacon earlier this spring. Small though it may be, the North Shore Regional Mining Exploration Fund should prove to be an interesting project to watch. It is a unique approach to providing support for mineral exploration while fostering local control over regional development.

The program uses $1.3 million owed to the province by the Iron Ore Co. of Canada to assist prospectors working in the North Shore — the vast area north of the St. Lawrence River and east of Quebec City.

In these days of $9-billion provincial deficits, it seems like an almost insignificant amount of money. The key element here, though, is not the size of the program, but how it will be administered. A non-profit organization comprised of people from the area will be established to decide who receives how much from the fund.

Small though the program may be, attention from many quarters across the country will be focused on just how the program’s administrators are chosen, how efficiently they conduct business and how productive are their results.

It is all too easy for local political issues to undermine a project like this. Well-intentioned motives can quickly degenerate into empire building and a self-serving bureaucracy. If it works, however, the North Shore Fund can be an opportunity for the exploration industry to show that it can act responsibly on a local level and use public funds wisely to “prime the pump” of mineral exploration that will ultimately benefit a much larger community.

Imaginative strategies to address problems don’t always lead to solutions. This scheme may or may not work, but it is an interesting approach, and without new ideas like this, the challenge of developing mineral resources in today’s political and economic climate simply will not be met.