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Mining investors are losing confidence in the mineral exploration permit process in most Canadian provinces with applications taking longer to be approved and a lack of transparency, a new study released Tuesday shows.
According to the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec are the three main provinces where exploration requests have grown longer and less transparent over the past 10 years.
In fact, 50% of the mining executives that participated in Fraser’s latest “Mining Survey”, indicated a lack of transparency in Ontario deters investment, followed by 48% of respondents in B.C. and 40% in Quebec.
In 2017, 83% of companies with projects in Ontario said that permit times had lengthened over the last ten years compared to 73% in B.C. and 50% in Quebec. On average, more respondents in the Canadian jurisdictions indicated that permit times were getting considerably longer compared to respondents in Australia and Scandinavia.
Kenneth Green, Fraser Institute resident scholar and co-author of “Permit Times for Mining Exploration in 2017” says the situation no only deters investment, but also “hinders Canada’s ability to realize its considerable resource potential.”
“Ultimately, uncompetitive mining policies send valuable investment dollars — and the jobs and prosperity they create —elsewhere,” he says.
The survey’s results were broken into three areas: the length of time it takes to be approved for the necessary permits, the transparency of the permitting process, and the certainty of the permitting process.
As a conclusion, Green says, we don’t suggest that regulations should be lessened in order to reduce the risks and costs to industry; rather we argue that regulations should be as efficient and cost effective as possible while trying to address concerns like externalities that can result from exploration activities.
9 Comments
Nadim Kara
Thanks for this Cecilia. One pitfall of studies like this tho is that industry respondents rarely distinguish between legitimate delays created by the crowns Duty 2 consult and unnecessary / extra delays. By extra delays I mean those created either by unnecessary complications in the consultation process or simply a lack of resources in the government to process claims, leading to regulatory delays. Teasing out consultation related related delays from mainline regulatory inefficiencies would enhance the quality of this study.
Houston Taylor
The study is irrelevant. The slow but steady growth of govt regulation will continue no matter what. Eventually the mining industry will be regulated out of existence, just like our govt has done in the US of A.
krusty1234
I agree with Houston. Another jurisdiction with foreboding developing consequences is Manitoba, where exploration has fallen to a critical minimum for many regulatory reasons. I wonder where MB ranks in this picture?
Mr Potatohead
Try coming to South Africa, where permitting for a simple prospecting right can take several YEARS to complete!
Abderman
And that’s good news, otherwise South Africa would be a TOTAL toxic desert! Go back to Holland moron
Fuji Liao
My experience in Canada is, most Canadian Juniors are just exploring and prospecting, but when come to permit for
mine production, it’s a big NO NO, their shares could go right down if such production news announced, most of them prefer production in S.America or somewhere other than Canada. Moreover, majority of Juniors own offshore land claims. Canada is just for show.
Steven Walker
CALIFORNIA here we come…. right back where we STARTED from….EH Canadians?
Old Cali is looking pretty good right about now??
GladstoneGOLDmine.com High-grade GOLD….in a STABLE 1st World Environment!!
When the rest of the world looks this CRAPPY….it makes California’s opportunities look even GREATER!!
Thank you Canada!
It’s all about PERSPECTIVE?
Walter H. Eason, Jr.
Justin Trudeau, Results of liberal control at it’s finest.
nick kelly
It is fortunate that the basic infrastructure of the country: rail, hydro dams, bridges, etc. was built before protests became a way of life.
Question: how can we pay the protesters their monthly check if we can’t sell our products?