Merci, Monsieur le President. On the first day of the last sitting, I asked questions about the limited public engagement opportunities in the ongoing development of new mining regulations. Why is this important? Because hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake in potential government revenues. The regulations will determine when and how people may get notified about mineral exploration, whether there will be any enforceable benefits from larger projects, if more or all of the geoscience collected during exploration is going to publicly reported and saved, and lots more. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and staff proposed that public engagement take place from May to July but not much has happened so far. There is rather general information on a single web page and the ability to submit comments on this list of vague topics. The timeline is slipping, and public engagement may not happen now until spring of next year.
Several contracts have been issued for research as follows, but none of it has been made available to the public:
- $24,000 study by two former ITI employees on map staking;
- $100,000 contract for legal assistance with potential dispute resolution between mining companies and the Minister; and.
- $200,000 contract for policy advice from the University of Calgary on how mining rights are managed elsewhere.
I applied under Access to Information and got the first report on map staking and I tabled it in the House in the last sitting. It's not clear if and when ITI will release any of these secret documents or internal research. Discussion papers and options papers have been developed and discussed at a technical working group of Indigenous government staff, and I support that process. But I also applied for these documents too under access to information almost six months ago. I was told I had to pay $260 to get what I expect will be heavily redacted documents. I'm still waiting for those documents, Mr. Speaker. Meanwhile, the Department is holding detailed secret meetings with the mining industry to develop these regulations.
Draft regulations are supposed to be posted in the spring, but comments and responses may not be public. I am worried that Cabinet will try to ram through new mining regulations just before or during the election when accountability and public engagement are low. Clearly, we can and should be doing a lot better, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.