Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered B.C. politics and business as a journalist since 1984Two weeks ago I described the apparent coordination of Ontario and B.C. to get on board with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s vow to speed up resource industry project approvals. Both provinces are legislating a fast track for their selected projects, particularly mines.In B.C.’s own mineral-rich 'golden triangle' in the northwest, the Tahltan, Taku River Tlingit and Kaska Dena First Nations stood with Premier David Eby’s call to build on the long-awaited success of two new mines in the region. Eby’s major speech to announce the new era promised that his plan would include “providing certainty and timeliness for investors,” as well as removing federal-provincial duplication, protecting the environment, speeding things up, and doing it all in partnership with indigenous people.We’ve now seen the first two substantive announcements, and they both look like setbacks..The province announced June 3 that it was declaring a year-long suspension of mining in the northwest while land use planning is done, involving the three above groups, plus the Gitanyow and Nisga’a Nations. The survey area is 16,000 hectares, about a sixth of the entire province, and home to as much as 75% of Canada’s copper reserves.Two days later the province announced it was settling a long-running dispute between the Tsilhqot’in Nation and Taseko Mines, which operates the Gibraltar and Mount Polley mines in the B.C. Interior. Taxpayers are buying out a portion of Taseko’s mineral claims to a rich gold deposit known as New Prosperity for $75 million, leaving the company with 77.5% ownership of the mineral tenures but banned from any further development.Another miner may venture into Tsilhqot’in territory, which in 2014 became known for the first court-ordered proof of aboriginal title in Canadian history. The B.C. deal makes it clear who will call the shots in any new development, citing “free, prior and informed consent” before anything is approved..There will also be a land use planning exercise in the historic ranching region near Williams Lake, with B.C. paying $1.5 million for planning and another $10 million to the Tsilhqot’in to support cultural development.It was just this past March when B.C. changed its mineral prospecting regulations to conform to another court decision. The long tradition of “free miners” filing claims on Crown land abruptly ended, after the NDP government chose not to appeal a 2023 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that consultation with First Nations is required before any claim is recognized.Prospectors are notorious for not telling people where they have found gold, but now they must. Prospecting is not really a relic of the past as it may seem; B.C. averaged around 7,000 mineral or placer claims in each of the past two years. How big the drop-off will be this year remains to be seen, but you could be forgiven for thinking that this is not exactly a recipe for a new mining boom..There is one bright spot in this federal-provincial push for industrial expansion, which so far has consisted mainly of greenhouse gases emanating from politicians. An independent office of the B.C. government just gave the green light to Canada’s second new gas pipeline, renewing 10-year-old permits to feed a floating LNG terminal in Nisga’a territory north of Prince Rupert.Post-carbon tax, our politicians appear to be on side with this, but opposition is gearing up from local indigenous and community groups who are being organized and scripted by veteran anti-fracking group Dogwood BC.Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered B.C. politics and business as a journalist since 1984. He lives in Victoria.tomfletcherbc@gmail.com X:@tomfletcherbc
