Mine managers in Ontario, Canada’s largest mining province, will be exposed to stricter environmental regulations when amendments to the province’s mining act come into effect June 3, says a Toronto lawyer.
“Managers will have another crew of government enforcement officials breathing down their necks, checking to see if they are complying with yet another set of provincial regulations,” says Madeleine Donahue, a lawyer with Baker & McKenzie of Toronto.
Under the act, which will be administered by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM), the minister of mines has the authority to create a new bureaucracy.
It will consist of mineral development officers as well as directors and inspectors of mine rehabilitation, with powers almost as great as inspectors and investigators from the Ministry of Environment (MOE).
“Managers will be hit with a double whammy,” says Donahue, one of the speakers at a recent 2-day session in Toronto designed to give both legal and technical advice on how to comply with mining regulations. The course, organized by the Toronto-based Canadian Institute, will also be held in Sudbury and Vancouver in the weeks ahead.
Of particular interest to Ontario mine operators will be Part IX of the act, which deals with mine development and closure. It will dictate that financial assurances for property rehabilitation be part of a mine closure plan, not within discretion of the director of mine rehabilitation.
Penalties are not as great as those under the province’s Environmental Protection Act, which is administered by MOE. However, there is no provision for either the MNDM or the MOE to take the lead role with regard to environmental measures.
Therefore, duplication of effort and conflict between ministries is of concern to mine operators.
“I predict the act will create more challenges to mining companies and it will add a more onerous dimension to mining in the province,” Donahue says.
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