Ontario’s Spanish River plan offers hope for better access

Today, there may be a faint glimmer of hope for the mineral industry in its continuing concern about access to land. On March 30, the final plan for land use around the Spanish River, in the Sudbury District of northeastern Ontario, was given approval by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy (MNR). The Spanish River had been originally proposed as a park. However, following public consultation, the Ontario Provincial Parks Council voted against park status and recommended instead that the river system be treated as a “special area” to be managed within a “framework for co-operative multiple use.”

Two years ago almost to the day, the Government of Ontario announced its new parks policy. In a tersely worded press release from MNR, the mineral industry was informed that its activities were no longer acceptable in provincial parks in the province. As if to rub salt into the wound, a second announcement was made that a further 53 provincial parks were to be established. From that point on, mining and exploration were to be out-of-bounds in 6.3 million hectares across Ontario.

Some verbal assurance was given to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) by the deputy minister of natural resources that changes in the size and shape of a park might be considered under special circumstances as long as the change would not radically alter the park’s configuration. However, for all intents and purposes, the parks themselves had been designated, and that was that.

In the following year, the PDAC was alerted to an apparent new direction in park creation, namely, river or waterway parks. In its brief to the 1989 Mines Ministers Conference, the PDAC drew attention to this new phenomenon as follows: “Typically, a river park consists of a long, narrow corridor which contains a stretch of river and a buffer zone, the latter normally a few hundred metres wide on either side, but, in some cases, expanded to include the whole watershed in the immediately surrounding area.”

Recent examples of provincial initiatives in this regard have included the Lower Stikine River in British Columbia, the Clearwater River in Saskatchewan, and the French, Albany and Spanish rivers in northern Ontario. As well, the Canadian Heritage Rivers Board, made up of federal and provincial government representatives, has been established to consider the creation of river parks in every province and territory of Canada.

The association pointed out the specific problems that these parks will pose to mineral exploration if the restrictive rules concerning their use are applied. Many of the parks are to be designated specifically for recreational purposes, to the exclusion of all other activities.

In addition, access is limited to recreational users. In many cases, the construction of bridges is prohibited. As such, river parks are of particular concern to the exploration industry as they effectively truncate or isolate significant areas on either side of their banks.

This is especially the case on the Canadian Shield where north-south flowing rivers crosscut east-west trending, highly prospective greenstone belts. One can well imagine the frustration of a claimholder confronted with the extraordinary task of working on claims that he holds on both sides of the river.

The Spanish River Special Area Plan covers 250 km of the river system, including the river channel and a 200-metre wide strip of land on each bank. Under its terms, “exploration activities will be permitted in the Special Area to the extent that they do not compromise the river’s natural environment, remote tourism, back-country opportunities, and the outdoor recreation experience. Mineral exploration of a potentially disruptive nature will be controlled through a work permit.”

Bridge crossings are to be allowed in two sites. In the event that an economically viable mineral deposit is discovered within the special area, development and production operations on the surface will need to be located outside the 200-metre buffer zone.

One could choose to be optimistic and view the Spanish River decision as a precedent setting one, reflecting a genuine will by the Ontario government to implement co-operative multiple land use. However, optimism must be tempered by the fact that this decision was made possible only by keeping it at arm’s length from the existing Ontario parks policy.

Ontario’s parks policy remains a serious impediment to the wise management of this province’s crown lands according to the principle of co-operative multiple use. As such, it is unacceptable to the Ontario public, particularly those who reside in the northern parts of the province, and must be subject to serious review. A.J. Andrews is the managing director of Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.