Madam Chair, members of the committee, mesdames et messieurs, my name is Jonas Smith, and as is common in a small jurisdiction where many of us wear numerous hats, I am involved in several mining-related organizations, including Prosperity Yukon and the Klondike Placer Miners' Association. My comments today will focus on the perspective of the Yukon Producers Group, although I can address questions concerning other perspectives, depending on the line of questioning from the honourable members.
Yukon Producers Group is a mining industry-driven organization representing Yukon's operating mines, advanced mineral exploration and development projects, and our key service suppliers.
We appreciate this opportunity to correct the record and to clarify some of the misrepresentations put forward during previous hearings and parliamentary debate regarding this bill. We believe there will be dire socio-economic impacts for Yukon residents, businesses, and communities if replacement language for the repealed sections is not established before Bill C-17 receives royal assent.
While our members are also concerned with issues related to legislated timelines, given our limited time with you here today, my comments will focus on the matter of reassessment.
As I mentioned earlier, the territory is a small jurisdiction with only 38,000 residents. The benefits and opportunities one operating mine can provide Yukoners, all orders of government, and Yukon communities resonate significantly throughout the territory and across all economic sectors. The repeal of the reassessment provision currently within the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act must simply not proceed until a replacement process has been deliberated and is in place.
We are aware of, and respect, Yukon first nations' position as to how this and three other amendments to YESAA were introduced outside of the previously agreed-to tripartite process. We fully support first nations participation in the development of legislation that affects all Yukoners, and we expect our governments to adhere to the process outlined in the treaties.
As such, our approach does not counter Bill C-17; rather, it implores that you, as federal legislators, recognize that without a replacement provision in place to address the existing section 49.1 and reassessment, industry, municipalities, and first nations governments will be left behind, and all Yukoners will suffer the negative consequences.
From training to employment and support for our hospitals, our college, our community charities, and our recreational facilities, the mining industry is integral to our socio-economic fabric, and the ability for mines to get into operation and remain operating is seriously challenged in the territory.
We are asking for the deferral of Bill C-17 until Canada, Yukon, and the Council of Yukon First Nations, with the input of industry and affected stakeholders, have deliberated and determined a replacement process for reassessment. This is the logical approach, as opposed to repealing this important provision with nothing collaboratively determined prior to repeal.
As stated in the Yukon Minerals Advisory Board, YMAB, 2016 annual report, tabled in the Yukon Legislative Assembly on June 7, 2017:
In the absence of a regulatory mechanism such as 49(1)...the process under which projects are 'reassessed' under YESAA is highly flawed.
At best, it serves as a significant burden and barrier to development and capital investments in the Yukon. At worst it threatens the very future of mineral development and placer mining in the territory. There are multiple examples in the Yukon that either have, or will, prematurely shut down projects due in large part to reassessment. The fact that 49(1) has been used by...[YESAB] over 80 times—
—now over 100 times—
—since Bill S-6 became law in 2015 speaks volumes for the critical need of a practical regulatory tool that can manage determinations of non-significance when appropriate.
YMAB appreciates the highly political lightning rod Bill S-6 became and the fact that C-17 will be enacted is not the issue. What is at issue is the loss of a practical regulatory tool that was deployed, or could have been deployed, to avoid repetitive environmental assessments deemed non-significant that serve no benefit to the public or the environment. It is worth noting that this will, and has, impacted several sectors beyond mining in the Yukon.
For context, the Yukon Minerals Advisory Board is comprised of 10 Yukon mineral industry representatives and is legislatively mandated to provide recommendations directly to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, as enacted under the Yukon Economic Development Act of 1999. Until the Northwest Territories devolved from Canada in 2014 and established a similar board, this was the only board of its kind in the country.
To quote YMAB further from its 2015 annual report:
Mining projects that have triggered a reassessment under YESAA require the entire project be reassessed rather than only the new or altered project component(s), which triggered the reassessment in the first place. There appears to be a misperception that industry seeks to circumvent future environmental assessments altogether and this perception is incorrect. YMAB is simply suggesting any reassessment be properly scoped to include only those project components that are new or substantially altered from the original assessment.
For example, as my colleague here has just recounted, Alexco has been through the YESAB process 11 times in 10 years. A project-wide reassessment every time does not allow for the fundamentals of establishing and sustaining a mining operation. To be sustainable an operation needs to continually modify and optimize mining and site plans in response to a multitude of factors, including technology, environmental best practices, commodity prices, or first nation and community values.
The absence of a reassessment provision not only negatively affects proponents, but places a strain on the financial and human resources of publicly funded assessors and governments as well.
Another very recent example from a Yukon mine ramping up to production revealed that in these last few months when Bill C-17 has been making its way through Parliament, the company was once again subjected to an expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately unnecessary reassessment. In this case YESAB ultimately determined that reassessment and any further mitigation beyond the original assessment were not required. Yet despite this relatively favourable outcome, the process that led to it still consumed considerable resources from the company and the YESAB assessment office.
It resulted in a missed season of work for the company, where those financial and human resources could have been put to far better use employing citizens of the affected first nation and the community where it operates.
As I mentioned previously, since section 49.1 was enacted in 2015, over 100 projects have applied for exemption from reassessment. These were not only mining proponents, but municipalities as well. The City of Whitehorse, a major employer in our territory's capital, received this determination under section 49.1 for one of its permanent renewals:
The project has been assessed once by YESAB in 2013. Since that time, the only changes in relation to the project were minor and regulatory in nature. There have been no significant changes to the project and therefore an assessment is not required. KDFN and TKC”—Kwanlin Dun First Nation and Ta'an Kwach'an Council, the two self-governing first nations within whose traditional territory the project lies—“were both contacted to provide comments, but no comments were received.
It has been suggested, given the number of Yukon's economic sectors that have benefited from this reassessment provision, including industry and municipalities, that removing it before its replacement is in position is like ripping the roof off your house before you've decided what to replace it with and leaving Yukoners out in the rain in the process.
Yukon's mining industry is modern, responsible, and innovative. It is a partner at the forefront of research and relationships that balance economic, social, cultural, and environmental values. It and its supporting service and supply companies are our territory's largest private sector employers. It contributes 20% to our GDP, a significant number in a small developing jurisdiction otherwise dominated by the public sector.
The mineral industry is committed to working with all orders of government to provide opportunities that allow Yukoners to grow up in the territory, study and train in the territory, and pursue rewarding and well-paying private sector jobs and careers.
In conclusion, Madam Chair and committee members, the Yukon Producers Group proposes that a committee of interested and affected government and industry parties be struck to work on replacement for the reassessment and timelines provisions and provide its recommendations for this replacement before Bill C-17 receives royal assent.
If replacement provisions are not in place beforehand, industry, municipalities, and all Yukoners will suffer.
Thank you again for the opportunity and your time this morning.