LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — `Sustainable development’ fraud

Back in the summer of 1990, I took a trip to Winnipeg as a freelance journalist to cover the annual conference of mines and energy ministers.

I was the only reporter at the conference, save for a brief appearance by a CBC television reporter who was there to grab a clip from Canada’s federal energy minister.

I was covering the meeting for CBC Radio and The Northern Miner. It was pretty important stuff as far as the future of mining was concerned in Canada. The feds had just eliminated an extra 33% tax writeoff on flow-through shares and exploration in Canada was drying up at a record pace. The 2-day affair focused on a bureaucratic phrase known as “sustainable development.” Representatives from the Prospectors and Developers Association, the Mining Association of Canada, Ottawa and the provinces were all there to “buy into” the concept.

In spite of a lot of attempts, I couldn’t find a single learned individual who could truly define sustainable development.

It’s supposed to mean that resources can and should be extracted as long as the extractor is wary of the manner in which they extract. During this process, the extractor must pay proper and due attention to the environment, and all the “stakeholders” must be in agreement with the process. It’s clear that the entire exercise was a fraud. Sustainable development is a fraud.

The government of British Columbia, in denying access to the Windy Craggy project, the Ontario government in its relentless pursuit to wipe out forestry and mining activity in northern Ontario through stumpage fees and new taxes, and the federal government in its quest to divest itself of any involvement in the resource industry are clear signals that sustainable development is a dead issue.

For Canadian governments, particularly the New Democratic Party, there is no such thing as sustainable development. I wonder, if an orebody similar to the one that spawned the Kidd Creek mine were to be discovered today, would it be allowed to go ahead?

When it comes down to the potential of a new mine or forest management agreement, it’s black or white.

Unfortunately, most governments are color-blind these days.

Kevin Vincent,

Publisher,

Timmins Times