LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (February 24, 1992)

Your front-page story (T.N.M., Feb. 10/92), especially the reference to the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) endorsing the continued role of Shelley Martel as Ontario’s minister of Northern Development and Mines, has upset and angered many of us in the mining industry.

Let’s start with the headline “Mining leaders support Martel’s survival bid.” The PDAC does not speak for this country’s mining fraternity. Nor do I profess to speak for everyone but it is my personal opinion that Martel is not fit to hold office.

She is under investigation as to her conduct as a minister by a committee of her peers. The honorable course of action for her to take after she stated in the legislature that she lied when speaking about a Sudbury doctor would have been to offer her resignation.

It surprises me that The Northern Miner would stretch the backing of one of the many organizations involved in mining to claim that the mining fraternity is endorsing Martel.

I am saddened that the PDAC would go public with its support before the investigation by a committee of MPPs was completed. Its reasoning that it doesn’t want to break in another mines minister after having six in the past five years is weak and shallow.

Has the PDAC not asked itself what exactly Martel has done to help the mining industry of this province? Her main job as minister of northern development is to deliver cheques to organizations, municipalities and

businesses.

As mines minister, she cut the financing allocated for the restoration of abandoned mines from $2.5 million to $1.5 million and sent $2 million back to the treasury from the Ontario Mineral Incentive Program (OMIP). That she comes from Sudbury should not blind us to the fact she has never indicated any real interest in, or knowledge of, mining.

As to the story itself, it must be noted that most of the quotes come from branches of the PDAC, specifically the Porcupine and Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association. (The president of the Ontario Mining Association, Patrick Reid, was also quoted.)

Under our justice system, a person is innocent until proven guilty, but the attempt by The Northern Miner to create the impression that mining supports Martel is embarrassing at best and manipulation at worst.

Don McKinnon

Timmins, Ont.