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I strongly urge anyone to take a look into Alberta's orphan well situation before taking these sorts of industry claims at face value.
Which isn't to say no development must take place. But these are exactly the sorts of organizations who will take every opportunity to screw us for a penny so every i needs to be dotted and t crossed when it comes to their contractual obligations wrt clean up and environmental restoration.
[The industry association] wants a more competitive fiscal framework for B.C. mines and smelters in line with what exists in Ontario and Quebec, saying the B.C. industry pays too much in carbon tax despite having lower emissions in comparison to other mining operations globally.
Translation: Nobody else is paying their share, so why should they?
It also wants faster permitting processes; more funding to help First Nations involvement in land-use decisions; investments to help electrify and power mines; and improvements around how to train and retain more workers.
Translation: They want to cut corners. They want help convincing First Nations that they have no choice anyway, so they might as well play along. The mines won't be as profitable or maybe not even viable if they have to pay for basic infrastructure or to develop their own stable workforce.
How about building your own carbon-free power plants and we'll consider building transmission lines to take excess production?
Maybe set up your own training centres to meet existing standards for transferrable certification. Not like the railroads that have their own welding schools, but the training and certification is not recognized on the free market. Then pay new employees to get the necessary training.
Put 50% (or whatever, recalculated annually) of revenue (not profit) into an escrow account for clean-up and remediation. Payments monthly. Missed payments come with a fine equal to double the payment. Missed payment on the fine means closure and forfeiture of the escrow. All in clear, simple, and direct language that means going to court over the issue is basically pointless. If there is money left over afterwards, we'll split it 50/50, assuming that the business is still operational, not merely shuttered and sold in a way that is designed to retain assets and eliminate liabilities.
If all that works for you, then maybe it's worth talking about how to deal with the rest in actually sensible ways. But there is no point going further if you can't make even the simplest business case without public funding.
Alternatively, if this is such a social good, then maybe it should be a social project. We can hire the relevant expertise as easily as you.
Yes BC, allow the land to be raped for a pittance and your betters shall grow richer than ever, again.
The choice seems clear. We await your inevitable forced assent.
Proposed critical-mineral mines in B.C. could each make $1B per year revenue
For who?
"There's a desire for another big mining boom, but we can't actually mine our way out of the climate crisis … we just don't physically have the resources," she said.
Yeah, that's how Climate Crisis ends, maxing out mining for resources.