Mining wary of NDP’s victories

Now that Michael Harcourt has led the New Democratic Party to victory in the recent British Columbia election, the province’s business community is waiting to see if the premier-elect will be as moderate and fiscally responsible as he portrayed himself to be during the election campaign.

At this stage, expectations are that Harcourt will be considerably more moderate than Dave Barrett was in 1972 when the NDP formed a government in the province. Barrett was defeated in 1975, after bringing in back-to-work legislation to end a number of strikes, a move which greatly upset his organized labor base of support. During his term of office, the NDP wreaked havoc on the mining sector by imposing royalties and other socialist legislation that effectively killed the industry.

“We have to take Mike Harcourt at his word that there will be no surprises,” said Tom Waterland, president of the Mining Association of British Columbia. “He said he would be reasonable and discuss the issues before making changes, and he’s also said they won’t spend money if they don’t have it.” But Waterland also said the mining industry must make more of an effort to ensure that the new crop of politicians, including Harcourt and Liberal leader Gordon Wilson, understand the concerns and uniqueness of the industry. The election swept out the Social Credit Party which held power from 1952 through 1991 (except the 1972-75 interval). Premier Rita Johnston lost her seat to an NDP candidate, and although the Socreds got 24% of the popular vote, they won in only seven of 75 ridings. The Liberals won 17 ridings and 33% of the popular vote, while the NDP won 51 seats and about 40% of the popular vote.

Combined with the NDP win in Saskatchewan a few days later, and the victory by the NDP in Ontario last year, Canada now has three provinces (all with active mining scenes) run by NDP governments.

In Saskatchewan, where the Tories were thrown out of office, NDP leader Roy Romanow said during the election campaign that his party’s anti-nuclear stance (adopted in 1983) could be in for a revision in light of two current studies — one dealing with energy options and the other with development plans for five uranium exploration projects — being undertaken in the province.

In British Columbia, because both the NDP and the Liberal opposition have stated an intent to double parklands to 12% of the province, Waterland said the industry must move quickly to voice its concerns on this issue. “We don’t think British Columbia is so wealthy we can afford to tie up our natural resources under this kind of quota system,” Waterland said. Although the mining industry has concerns about some of the NDP’s stated policies, Cominco Ltd. President Robert Hallbauer said the industry has no choice but to adopt a wait-and-see attitude until NDP policies are more clearly defined.

“We really don’t know what their policies are yet,” he said. “But they say they will do nothing in a hurry, and will have consultations before making significant changes. It is up to our industry to tell them how we view things.”

The business community as a whole is concerned about Harcourt’s election platform which proposed changes to the province’s labor codes and increases in corporate tax rates.

Organized labor forms the largest component of Harcourt’s base of support which also includes environmentalists and women’s groups. Political analysts predict these groups will soon be expecting “political rewards.” To demonstrate this point, John Shields, president of the government employees union, was quoted in local newspapers as saying he expects Harcourt to begin rebuilding the provincial civil service “to its rightful place in the province.” The civil service was scaled down considerably in recent years by the Social Credit Party.

Harcourt is expected to announce his cabinet choices within the next several weeks, which will include a new minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources.