Feature Article February 20, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeHewers of rock and haulers of waterby Jeff GreenMining rights and water taking by a mining company are of major concern in our region. The decision in the OMYA water taking case happened to be announced just as ongoing concern over the staking practices of Graphite Mountain has returned to public attention.
These two cases are not related, but the different ways the provincial government has handled them reveals something of what Toronto thinks of rural Ontario in general, and eastern Ontario in particular. In the OMYA water taking case a group of citizens invested three years of their lives trying to make a process work, trying to ensure that a decision that may have an effect on their watershed and their community was taken with the democratic input of all those involved.
Contrary to what has been said and written in the Toronto and Ottawa media in the past week, the water taking issue was not really about stopping a company from taking water from the Tay river. No one was seriously claiming the Tay River will run dry as a result of the water taking because there are controls in place and the Tay itself draws water from a larger source. What was at stake was the ability of a community to look at the Tay Watershed as a whole, to take what the appellants in the case called a precautionary approach, to make sure good science was done and a good job of informing people was done before the 4500 cubic litres per day started being drawn from the river.
But time is money, and OMYA Canada saw three impediments to increased production. They needed a larger plant, so they built it. They needed more water, so they got it, and they needed a better transportation route. Then lo and behold. Provincial minister (Lanark Carlton MPP) recently showed up at a meeting of Lanark Highlands Council to tell the councillors a Superbuild grant was available to build a bypass road around the Village of Lanark. This will allow more trucks to run Calcium Carbonate from the OMYA mine in Tatlock to their plant along the Tay River.
OMYAs interest are now secure.
Meanwhile, the Bedford Mining Alert, the Citizens Mining Action Committee and all the township councils combined have had no luck in getting the provincial government's attention over the antiquated Mining Act, which gives mining companies inordinate rights at the expense of rural landholders. It has even been difficult to get the government to enforce the limited protections that are in the Mining Act against an unconcerned mining company.
The position of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mining remains as it has been for years: Dont worry, there is only a one in ten thousand chance that a mining claim will actually turn into an actual mine, is what Minister Wilson has said.
In the meantime mining companies have the right to tear up land, dig test holes, and perform other operations without any requirements to clean up.
Everyone knows the future of this area lies in encouraging people to move in to the region. And it is happening.
Between the influx of young seniors to the push for high-speed telecommunications, rural eastern Ontario will prosper only if people continue to migrate in, whether to commute to larger centres, to retire, or to set up businesses in the region. Mining is not going to be a major player in the economic growth of eastern Ontario. OMYA, for all its talk of being an economic engine for Perth, still only employs 250 people. Graphite Mountain has no local employees as far as anyone can tell.
There will be an election this year. A change in the stripe of the MPP's from eastern Ontario would not necessarily change anything in Toronto. It may not mean that Environmental Review Tribunals are not overturned by ministerial prerogative. It may not mean the government will seriously consider changes to the Mining Act.
But it would be a start.
