MAC laments loss of funding

The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) is disappointed the federal government, in its recent budget, chose not to fund the program known as the Co-operative Geological Mapping Strategy (CGMS).

The CGMS involves federal, provincial and territorial governments. The program has been developed over the past five years after extensive consultation with geological surveys and industry across the country. The objective is to improve the quality and extent of geological mapping across Canada, most particularly in northern Canada. Inclusion of the federal component of this funding in the budget would have triggered commitments from the provincial governments to fund the mapping strategy. The refusal to invest in the CGMS shows a failure by the federal government to recognize the growing competitive realities of the Canadian mining business.

The MAC acknowledges that there are a number of provisions in the budget that will benefit the mining industry. These include the federal government’s commitment to lower corporate income tax rates, support for clean energy alternatives such as geothermal energy, an investment to improve the efficiency of northern regulatory systems, and a commitment to improve the securities regulatory system in Canada.

However, the federal government’s indifference to the mapping program is a major concern. “It has been estimated that if public geoscience spending in Canada’s north were to continue at present levels, it would take a hundred years for the north to catch up to where the south is today,” says Gordon Peeling, president and CEO of the MAC. “In most of Nunavut and in parts of the Northwest Territories, there are no maps at all. The CGMS is a long-term strategy representing one of the smartest investments — along with training and infrastructure — that the federal government could have made to support the long-term sustainable development of Canada. Unfortunately, the government chose not to.”

In today’s global economy, a modern, accessible public geoscience knowledge base is a key competitive advantage in assessing a jurisdiction’s geological potential and in attracting investment in mineral exploration and development. The geoscientific information from the federal, provincial and territorial geological surveys provides significant public benefits and is widely acknowledged to be one of Canada’s competitive advantages in attracting mineral exploration investment and making exploration more effective.

— The preceding is from an information bulletin published by the Mining Association of Canada.