Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

I had a lengthy and most interesting phone call from Michael Leahy last week concerning the proposed changes to the Ontario Mining Act. First, he said, the Mining Act passed in 1873 was never a static document. It has been amended many times, including a complete rewrite in 1990. Leahy knows whereof he speaks because he was involved in the revisions two decades ago, and until 2006 he sat on (and chaired) the Minister’s Mining Act Committee.

Still actively prospecting from his home in Kirkland Lake, Leahy says enforcement of the Mining Act will come through the passage of various regulations as set out in the Act. Until these regulations are written, much of the practical application of the Act is uncertain. 

The Ontario government has also significantly broadened its powers of regulation with this Mining Act. Leahy is correct to point out that regulations are passed without the public readings and procedures necessary to get bills through the provincial parliament. That leaves me wondering if regulatory changes will be made arbitrarily, with no notice and less consultation.

Leahy pointed out that the concept of ‘native traditional lands’ is unclear. Read the rest of this entry »