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'The North is going to benefit': premier, industry minister defend mining conference

“At some point, instead of sitting there and criticizing why we’re down here, I think someone needs to follow us around and see what’s going on here,” said Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Wally Schumann on Wednesday from Vancouver, B.C.

Premier Bob McLeod spoke to executive MBA students at the Simon Fraser University Graduate School of Business in Vancouver Wednesday. McLeod, along with most of the GNWT cabinet and other officials, are in Vancouver for the annual Association for Mineral Exploration Round-up. Andrew Livingstone/GNWT photo

Schumann has been in Vancouver all week at the AME Roundup 2018 mining conference, along with a cohort of close to 44 people, including Premier Bob McLeod, all of cabinet except Health Minister Glen Abernethy, a host of bureaucrats, and representation from aboriginal governments and groups across the NWT.

The price tag was estimated at $235,700 but a final amount has not yet been finalized, according to McLeod.

“I always relate it to Chinese tourism where we were criticized for spending too much money to go to China,” said McLeod, referencing a $68,000, eight-day trade mission to China in 2012. “Now we have 20,000 or more Chinese coming to the Northwest Territories. I see this as a similar vein.”

McLeod said he and Schumann have been booked solid with meetings all week, and he had a turn running the NWT’s booth on the floor of the conference.

“Based on the responses and the meetings I’ve had, we’re going to have a very positive investment in mining in the near future and the North is going to benefit significantly,” said McLeod.

He and Schumann both have lists of the industry representatives with whom they’ve met, and said they will make these public, though News/North wasn’t able to obtain them by press time.

The results of public meetings on the GNWT’s proposed Mineral Resources Act were made public earlier this week as well, which Schumann and McLeod said garnered interest at the conference – and they were surprised to learn, said Schumann, that people had been following it closely.

The key themes cited in the document, Mineral Resources Act: What We Heard, were that resource development in the territory needs to have tangible benefits for NWT communities; measures need to be in place, with financial assurances, to make sure mines are remediated and closed, and not abandoned; the industry’s regulation needs greater transparency and predictability; and environmental concerns must be taken into account;

According to the GNWT’s timeline for the Mineral Resources Act, a draft act will be drawn up during the summer. Then, this fall, the government will begin consulting aboriginal groups about any potential impact to aboriginal or treaty rights. Finally, the bill will be introduced and debated in the legislative assembly in fall of 2019.

McLeod said his government remains committed to advancing, and hopefully settling, the NWT’s outstanding land claims within the life of this assembly. He said this act will not interfere with the process, and the representation at the conference shows that everyone is interested in the benefits of industry.

“They have the certainty that what they’re negotiating will not be conflicting with the Mineral Resources Act,” said McLeod.

Schumann said some of the most popular projects at the conference were Nighthawk Gold Corp.’s Indin Lake property, 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, and TerraX Minerals Inc.’s Yellowknife City Gold project, 10 kilometres north of the city – both advanced exploration projects.

“(It was useful) having the ministers along with me at these meetings,” said Schumann, “be it Alfred Moses – education – around skills and training, how do we move that forward; or have the minister of lands with me to talk about access to lands, staking and permitting; environmental issues with R.C. McLeod.

“These people appreciate the time that they can take to get these questions answered and decide that this is the jurisdiction that they want to invest in.”