Modernize the mining act and end the free-for-all

The Association for Mineral Exploration BC holds its annual conference in Vancouver this week, complete with a field trip to a coal mine and a sold-out workshop called "So You Want to Be A Director --How to Stay Out of Jail."

The Association for Mineral Exploration BC holds its annual conference in Vancouver this week, complete with a field trip to a coal mine and a sold-out workshop called "So You Want to Be A Director --How to Stay Out of Jail."

The conference is aptly called "Go for the Gold and Everything Else." It's a fitting title because B.C.'s antiquated Mineral Tenure Act allows mining exploration companies easy and preferential access to virtually every corner of our province -- even private land -- with the comparatively small geographical exception of parks, ecological reserves and urban areas.

The act was created in 1859, as the Goldfields Act of B.C.

The world has changed significantly since 1859 but, inexcusably, our current Mineral Tenure Act remains substantially the same. Like the Goldfields Act, our current act is based on the principle of "free entry," designed to promote land settlement in B.C. at a time when mines were relatively small and left far less of an ecological footprint. Free entry allows miners to pay a minimal fee to stake a claim almost anywhere in the province, without consultation, and to gain virtually unlimited access to minerals.

Unlike other sectors like forestry and oil and gas, regulated by the B.C. government to determine where industrial development is appropriate, mining exploration companies operate on a "first come, first served" basis. Once a mining claim is made -- now possible with the click of a computer mouse through B.C.'s online staking system -- the claim creates legal entitlement that supersedes other potential land uses.

B.C. should take immediate steps to end our antiquated "free entry" system. We need to create a modern Mineral Tenure Act that reflects today's economic and environmental realities. A new act must allow for first nations and environmental review before penny-stock exploration companies are granted legal rights to the land.

The urgent need for reform is underscored by the B.C. government's recent decision to relax rules for mining exploration companies operating in designated mountain caribou habitat -- while logging companies must abide by far more stringent regulations. In October 2007, B.C.'s Mountain Caribou Recovery Implementation Plan designated 2.2 million hectares in B.C.'s interior rainforest for endangered mountain caribou recovery.

Logging companies must receive the recommendation of a registered qualified professional and a special exemption, following review by the B.C. environment ministry, before they can build even a short road or cut any trees. But because the designated habitat includes 500,000 hectares staked by mining exploration companies, there is a double standard. The B.C. government is allowing mining exploration companies to log caribou food trees and build roads up to "thresholds" that the Ministry of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources determines are of "acceptable risk" to caribou.

This unfair double standard is inappropriate given the high stakes and commitments being made by other sectors and interest groups to protect critical caribou habitat.

Other provinces have shifted away from "free entry" or abolished it altogether. Alberta terminated free entry in 1967; last year, Ontario made mineral exploration subject to planning and permitting controls. It is time for B.C. and the mining industry to leave 1859 behind and follow suit, eliminating double standards and ensuring that the industry is accountable to all British Columbians.

John Bergenske is the executive director of Wildsight, a conservation organization focused on Canada's Columbia and southern Rocky Mountain region. George Heyman is the executive director of Sierra Club BC.