Martel rebuts remarks on rehab program

Ontario MPP Frank Miclash recently questioned the provincial government’s commitment to the rehabilitation of abandoned mine sites in Ontario.

The Liberal member from Kenora in northwestern Ontario called the New Democratic Party government’s approach toward mine rehabilitation a “sham,” and cited what he said is a 40% cutback in the Abandoned Mines Rehabilitation Program of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

His statements were rebutted by Mines Minister Shelley Martel. Miclash said that the program, announced earlier this year, committed $2.5 million toward the rehabilitation of old and abandoned mines. He blasted the government for recently reducing the planned expenditures by $1 million. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that $2.5 million for 3,000 mines works out to about $833 per mine site,” Miclash, mining critic for his party, said in the legislature.

“Ministry officials estimate it will cost an estimated $80-100 million to deal with problems on Crown and municipal lands alone. The $2.5 million becomes even more insignificant when one takes into consideration a recent 40% reduction in the program budget caused by the withdrawal of $1 million by the present mines minister.”

Martel, in a press release, said $10 million has been allotted to the 3-year program, of which $7.3 million has been allocated for rehabilitation purposes. Of the $7.3 million, $5.3 million is capital funding for rehabilitation work. An additional $1.5 million, she said, has been allocated from the ministry’s base budget and another $500,000 is coming from the government’s anti-recession program.

The minister also said $4.67 million has been earmarked for research and development, inventories and investigations, and public information and safety initiatives.

The $1-million reduction was announced as part of the provincial treasurer’s mid-year spending adjustment for 1991, she said, explaining that “these funds have been deferred to later years, leaving the $10-million commitment intact.”