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Why Manitoba’s mining industry is failing


Continued from page 1


The annual payroll alone would generate more hundreds of millions a year as compensation for high paying jobs. The spin off benefits to the North would have a positive impact on a wide range of industries including trucking, steel, concrete, food and a whole myriad of manufactured goods. This in turn would open up opportunity for lo- cal and Indigenous business enterprise to develop. There are positive precedents for example of Indigenous partner- ship and ownership in trucking operations to service such needs.


The imperatives of today’s social climate means that these companies understand the need for strong commit- ments to social responsibility. They take their obligations to local citizens very seriously. While some contemplate open pit mining, they bring with them a trusted reputation for environmental mitigation and restoration. They know they must make a commitment to leave the area as close to its natural state as possible when the deposit in exhausted. They have the money to invest. Some could be ready to go into production within as few five years. Great, you say. What’s holding them back? Therein, as the Bard would have it, lies the rub. The issues they con- front are myriad but most have to do with negative at- titudes by senior bureaucrats and inappropriate and often pointless regulation in the Mines Branch itself. “The mines department is broken,” said one long term player in the field, who went on to say that the people run- ning things now, while perhaps well-intentioned, are ill in- formed, inexperienced and, therefore, often obstructionist. The destruction of the department began long before the current government took over, but little has been done to reverse the damage that has led to serious erosion of the mining industry in Manitoba. Manitoba’s share of the market has fallen to two per cent from five in just a few years. The implication in monetary terms is a $70 million a year. In 2009, there were 85 junior mining operations in the province. Today there are 12 and some of those are in jeopardy. Manitoba, which used to be a leader in mining, has dropped to the bottom of the barrel in the Canadian industry. Nobody wants to invest here. “Investors don’t trust Manitoba anymore,” said my


source, who went on to tell how the “dithering” by the Mines Branch folded a lithium company after it took more than 10 years for the mine branch to issue a work permit. At least a half dozen other companies have gone bankrupt waiting for the branch to deal with their permits. Others are currently on the brink. There are other issues, but let’s just look at the issue of “permits”, because I know you will be asking yourself why a mining company has to get a work permit. Apparently this practice began as a way of ensuring that Crown Lands and the Forestry Branch knew who are where workers were so that they could deal with emergencies such as forest fires. But over time and with complications compounded by the brilliant fore thought of Greg Sellinger (who was well known for his penchant for governing through regu- lations to avoid the need to pass debated legislation), the permits have become monsters of red tape. Even more serious is that the risk of delayed permitting


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Will the Moose be


moved? Continued from page 1 The Vale Nickel Mine (Thompson is in the background). Photo by Timkal.


must be communicated to investors under the Canadian Tax Act. With Manitoba’s history, the risk is clearly great, sending publicly traded companies heading for the hills. Why can’t government just fix this? It should be simple and I believe they are trying to fix it – we have heard the premier’s pledge to remove and dismantle and rationalize regulation – but effective deregulation requires a couple of other “fixes”: 1. They need senior bureaucrats who under- stand the need and are willing to engage in a positive and helpful way; and 2. They need to put the right people in the right places to get the job done. When it comes to mines, all the new hires are without mining experience, so they don’t know how to respond effectively and appropriately. Because they are slaves to the regime of regulation, they get tangled up in the murky world of how these things fit together in overlapping juris- dictions. Not knowing how to untangle the mess, they do nothing – hence 10 years and ultimate bankruptcy. What’s the answer? Consult with and hire people who


do know what to do and let them do it. There are many successful mining regimes in Canada that could provide the expertise and the people to bring our department back up to snuff.


As for investors, they were casting a friendly glance our


way, but we are doing nothing to send them a message of encouragement. The minister, and perhaps the premier, along with some knowledgeable and experienced mining advisors (not senior bureaucrats) need to go to Toronto and have a sit down with the folks at the Stock Exchange. They need to hear and really listen to their concerns. When they come back, they need to issue corrective directives and, if there is resistance, they need to remove the resis- tance.


As for the waiting gold companies, we should be stand- ing on our heads to make their way forward smooth and barrier free. If we truly believe in the North, if we are do- ing more than paying lip service to ensuring that there is a way for Indigenous communities to build their own econ- omies, we must make this happen!


Three types of laws governments should never pass


Continued from page 3


Governments should never pass laws that don’t address real issues or are based on false information or faulty logic. There


are many examples of laws


passed for the wrong reasons: the law against using email addresses without explicit permission would be one such. It was justified as a means of cutting down SPAM. But big spammers simply moved their accounts offshore, so that didn’t work at all, but small business and non-profits were put to tremendous ex- pense and trouble to avoid breaking the law. Privacy laws are another. The only privacy being protected is that of gov- ernment agencies and corporations and meanwhile people can’t access informa- tion about their own telephone bill be- cause it is in their husband’s name. Nor can parents access information to help a 19-year-old child with mental or drug is-


June 2019


sues, because he or she is now an “adult” and their “privacy” is protected under the law.


More recently the federal fisheries de- partment passed regulations banning boats from coming within 100 metres of beluga whales (50 metres in Churchill). If the regulators had ever been to Churchill in whale birthing season, they would know how ridiculous that is. The waters are teeming with belugas which are curi- ous creatures; they approach the boats, the kayaks, even wet-suited swimmers. There are many such laws on the books that should never have been passed be- cause they were based on false premises or were subverted by regulations that twisted the intent of the original bills into something entirely different. Currently, the federal government is trying to come up with laws that ban “fake” news! That would be completely ludicrous if it didn’t have such serious


implications for the future of free speech. How could intelligent people even con- template such a thing? It has never been possible to stop people from presenting their version of the truth. Just because you see things differently, doesn’t make the other guy wrong or a liar. Just ask any investigator about eye-witness accounts. And when it comes to opinions, the credibility gap between observers widens considerably. Government sanctioning of the “news” is anti-trade, anti-democratic and simply anti-common sense! The idea is also unworkable. They sim- ply will not be able to shut down chatter on any of the social media channels, not to mention opinions and news created by publishers and broadcasters of the old- fashioned kind. Passing unworkable laws simply begs for civil disobedience. There are always those who will refuse to obey and in my humble opinion, that is a good thing!


nated with fine teams in the Major Ju- nior Western Hockey League, and 12 teams in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. However, there has not been a pro hockey team since the 1959 demise of the Saskatoon Quakers of the West- ern Hockey League. The almost-every- where World Hockey Association man- aged to avoid Saskatchewan. In 1983, Bill Hunter’s bid to relocate the NHL St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon failed. Be- tween 1992 and 1994, Saskatoon did host six neutral-ice NHL regular season games. Could the sold out outdoor help bring pro hockey back to either Saska- toon’s 15,100-seat Sask-Tel Centre or Regina’s 6,484-seat Brandt Center? Since 2011, the Winnipeg Jets have


captured the hearts of Winnipeg like no other sports team in Winnipeg’s sports history. The games are sold out. Most Winnipeg citizens have at least one Jets souvenir item. The Jets economic suc- cess should continue into the foresee- able future. However, Winnipeg now has teams in both the American Hockey League and the Major Junior Western Hockey League. None of the other three Western Canadian NHL cities have teams in both the American Hock- ey League and the Major Junior West- ern Hockey League. Winnipeg cannot possibly support both the Moose and the Ice. How did this happen? How will it be corrected? In 2015, the Jets moved their


fi-


nancially successful farm team, the St. John’s Ice Caps, to Winnipeg. The at- tendance for the Manitoba Moose has steadily declined from 7,285 in 2015- 16 to 4,727 in 2018-19. In early 2019, the Kootenay Ice announced their move from Cranbrook, B.C. to Winnipeg. They became the Winnipeg Ice. The business model for the Ice does not make sense. The Ice was not finan- cially viable in Cranbrook with an aver- age attendance of 2,214. They are cur- rently investing money to increase the size of their temporary U of M home from 1,400 to 1,600. In two years, they are planning to move to a new arena just outside of Winnipeg in the MacDonald Municipality. Land rezoning is required. A speed reduction on McGillivray Bou- levard will probably be necessary. These steps and the arena construction may take more than two years. Of course, Winnipeg will not provide any transit service to any venue outside of Winni- peg; Winnipeg already refuses to pro- vide transit service inside Winnipeg to the Ice Plex. Why is the Ice not playing out of Bell MTS Place? The Edmonton Oil Kings and Calgary Hitman of the Major Junior Western Hockey League currently play out of NHL arenas. Both teams averaged over 7,000 per game this past season. There is clearly room for either the


Moose or the Ice BUT NOT BOTH. A February 1, 2019, Winnipeg Sun poll suggests that the Ice is twice as popular as the Moose. In between periods of the Regina Outdoor Game, the relocation of the Moose to Saskatchewan for the 2020-2021 season will be announced. The Ice will move into Bell MTS Place Watch the stars of today and tomor-


row at 300 Portage Avenue. Good luck to the Saskatchewan Moose. You heard it here first. Fred Morris describes himself as a politi- cal activist and sometime political candi- date.


www.lifestyles55.net 5


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