Feature Article October 30, 2003
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Bedford
Mine Claim ReinstatedL
ast Thursday, a public forum
sponsored by the Limestone chapter of the Ontario Woodlot Association
featured a debate between Peter Griesbach, a member of the Bedford
Mining Alert and a landowners rights activist, and John McCance,
the President of the Southern Ontario Prospectors Association.
On
the night of the forum, a lot of the discussion was theoretical
because the bulk of the mining claims in Bedford District had been
forfeited by Graphite Mountain, who had failed to renew the claims
earlier this year.
All of that changed the very next day when the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) announced publicly that about 30 of the mining claims, covering about 2,000 acres of land in Bedford, had been reinstated. The prospecting company, Graphite Mountain Incorporated, had applied for what is called relief from forfeiture to the minister, and just as the new Liberal Minister was being sworn in, it was announced that the application had been accepted and the claims have been reinstated.
The reinstatement of the claims is a directive of the minister and not the department. However, Ron St. Louis, a representative of the new minister of Mines, Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci, told the News it was likely that Ron Gashinski, a senior manager at the Sudbury headquarters of the ministry, had made the decision, and that it was an administrative and not a political decision.
Peter Griesbach thinks the timing of the decision is interesting, coming as it did on the day the Liberal minister was sworn in. Im sure the new minister was unaware of it, but I wonder what the motivation of the department was to put this through when they did, he said. Two of the reinstated claims are on land owned by Griesbach.
John McCance said he wouldnt make too much of the timing of this decision. It is common practice to give prospectors a second chance, the way the ministry did in this case. The ministry is likely to accept a prospecting companys explanation as to why they missed a deadline once, but not twice. They wont get away with missing a deadline again.
The debate last Thursday between Griesbach and McCance was relatively congenial, considering the men have fundamental differences on many issues.
Griesbach, who has made a study of the mining act, has become a member of the executive of FOCA (the Federation of Ontario Cottage Associations) and has been the FOCA representative on the Mining Review panel that has recommended changes to the mining act to the Ministry. The proposed changes have been on hold this year because there has been an election pending, but now Griesbach is hopeful they will be brought forward to the new Liberal Minister.
One of the recommendations deals with the rules for staking claims on lands where the property owner does not own the mining rights to their property, which is the case for all the disputed claims in Bedford. Currently, a prospector can enter those lands and stake the four boundaries of the claim, placing posts at 400 metre intervals, and can do brushing and blazing in order to stake the claim. None of this requires any notification to the surface rights owner.
The recommendation would change the mining act so that only single stake could be put up, at the northeast corner of the property, before the prospector informs the landowner of his intentions to stake the property. If the landowner refuses to let the prospector enter the land for staking, the prospector would then be able to appeal to the Mining Recorders office to force the landowner to comply with the request.
John McCance said, Ontario wouldnt go along with that, and I wouldnt go along with that, because the surface rights owner does not have the right to impede a mining claim unless they own the mineral rights. That really comes under the category that is broadly anti-mining.
In many cases, the surface rights owner is not even aware they do not own the mineral rights, which was the case with Peter Griesbach himself. He only found out he does not own the mining rights to his land after he found trees down and stakes up on his land one day three years ago.
It is really a case of buyer beware. Realtors are not required to inform purchasers of property whether the mining rights are included with the land or not. Interestingly, Leona Dombrowsky, the new Minister of the Environmment, pledged during the election campaign to make this notification by realtors a requirement should the Liberals form the government.
McCance said that opponents to what he terms geological studies jump to conclusions about the process of developing mines. When you look at regions like Bedford, or more northern areas, you have to ask what the economic reality is. Tourism is not enough to sustain the region, and if there are potential resources, why not look for them. If people ultimately decide they really dont want mining in Bedford, then the mining industry will go away, he said.
McCance did admit that it is bad actors within the industry that cause problems like the ones in Bedford, And he apologized to Griesbach for all the trouble he has undergone at the hands of the prospector he has been dealing with for three years.
Of interest to the audience of woodlot owners was the fact that, although various activities on lands, such as orchards, pasture lands, barnyards, gardens and houses themselves are defined by Section 32 of the Mining Act as improvements to the land which make it exempt from staking, managed woodlots are not included in the list. Woodlot owners, who may have spent years carefully removing selected trees and leaving others for later harvest or other purposes, and have often paid registered foresters to have their forests evaluated for a tax incentive program, can have their forests staked, and trees can be removed at the convenience of prospectors. This is also something Griesbach would like to see changed.
John McCance said that the members of the prospecting association do not engage in destructive practices. A lot of the work we do is from the air, and doesnt affect the land at all. And we talk to surface rights owners before doing anything. But we have the right to enter lands that are open to staking. We need to stake the lands, and then spend a period of time exploring the mineral content of the ground. The mineral content is not the property of the surface rights owner, and we need to do whatever is reasonable to carry out our legitimate business, he said.
What about the destruction of the land above ground? Griesbach asked.
That is a matter for compensation, and there are means to deal with that within the mining act, McCance responded.
(The News attempted to contact Ron Gashinski of the MNDM office in Sudbury to comment on the reinstated Graphite Mountain Claims but he was unavailable until after press time this week. As well Leona Dombrowsky, who as opposition MPP expressed support for the Bedford Mining Alert, was in briefings at the Ministry of the Environment all day Monday and Tuesday this week. Her communications assistant, Joanne Lewis, said the office had been unaware of the decision until informed by the News.)
