Mining notices of work applications, one of the pieces of paper a miner must have before a project can proceed, have been reduced from 229 to 85, said BC Premier Christy Clark at Round Up 2012 on Wednesday.
“We know that delays in resolving applications for land usage result in lost opportunities for job creation, which is why as part of the BC Jobs Plan our government invested $24 million to reduce the various backlogs that prevent projects from proceeding,” said Premier Clark.
She said her government’s goal is to reduce the notice of work application backlog by 80 per cent by August 31, 2012. The Ministry of Forests, Land and Natural Resource Operations has set a goal of reducing the average turnaround time for NOW applications from 110 days to 60 days.
Progress on backlog reduction in mining applications and Land and Water Act authorizations can be tracked at http://www.bcjobsplan.ca/progress/resource-sector-permits/ which will be updated monthly.
The Premier also announced a land use agreement with the Kaska Dena First Nations. Started in 2001, the Dease-Liard Sustainable Resource Management Plan covers direction for over 2.3 million hectares of Crown land between the B.C.-Yukon border and Dease Lake.
The plan also includes a government-to-government Strategic Land Use Planning Agreement with the Kaska Dena Council that will guide future resource development within its traditional territory, but outside the new plan area. The agreement covers more than 7.4 million hectares from the Dease-Liard region to Mackenzie.
“This agreement applies the vision and principles of the Kaska Dena to resource development, including revenue sharing and Kaska environmental monitoring throughout the life of a project,” said George Miller, chair of the Kaska Dena Council in a news release. “The Horseranch Range that is protected as part of the agreement is a breadbasket for the Kaska Dena, where people in the region would go to when food was scarce. It is an area of regional importance that the elders have wanted to protect for a very long time.”
Comments
Aliowhk
kudo to Premier Clark for her reform and support!!