Thank you very much for inviting New Brunswick to attend.
I understand the focus is on development of mining in the north. As you're probably very much aware, New Brunswick doesn't really fall into that category. Northern New Brunswick gets a lot of snow in the winter, but beyond that we're very much different from, say, the far north of Canada.
As such, what I propose to do is give a brief overview of where we are with mining in the province, some of the issues and things of that nature that may relate to the north, but there are some common issues throughout.
New Brunswick has a long history of mining, which started in 1639 with the sale and transport of coal from the Minto area to Boston, so we've been involved in this for quite a while. The more recent history has been focused on base metal development and potash or industrial minerals.
New Brunswick has a very diverse geology. We're a small province but we have sedimentary basins. We have igneous formations and volcanics and so on, and as a result we have a full variety of minerals that are being looked at and have been exploited over the years. That includes base metals, lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum, tungsten, precious metals, industrial minerals like potash, salt, limestone, and also hydrocarbons, as I mentioned, in our carboniferous basins, which are coal, and more recently natural gas and oil. We've been an oil and gas producer for over 100 years, shale gas being the flavour of the day here, as it is in many other provinces.
It's fine to say that we have all these minerals and we are a small province, but at the same time we have also produced world-class deposits. I guess the primary one we have produced for a long period of time is Xstrata's Brunswick Mine. It has operated for close to 50 years, and it was the largest underground lead-zinc mine in the world. I believe it could still retain that title. It is due to close shortly, in 2013.
We also produce two world-class potash deposits. One is still operating. That would be the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan's mine in Sussex. We've also had several mid-sized base-metal mines over the years.
Because we have a small province—and this is very different from the north—we do have a labyrinth of roads that are primarily related to the forest industry, which provides ready access to the entire province for the purposes of exploration. We don't get involved with helicopters very often. I guess that's the best way to put it. We have year-round, industrial-sized ports providing access to world markets, rail access, and a very well-trained, industry-oriented workforce.
Mining offers a huge economic opportunity for New Brunswick: well-paid skilled jobs. A lot of these operations are looking at the rural communities with regard to their location. A couple of really good examples would be Bathurst and Sussex. These are small towns—to start with they were probably villages—and they've expanded into very successful municipalities because of the mining industry associated with them. They are doing very well from an economic perspective.
We have seen firsthand the effect that mining can have on the rural community, and specifically on municipalities in close proximity. That's not to say that the supply chain benefits—it benefits throughout the province. Fabrication shops and various associated industries supply the mining industry in the province, and again they can be found throughout the province, so the benefits are not just localized.
Needless to say, there are also direct benefits to the province through royalties, taxes, and fees. We've had some very significant royalties paid over the previous years, which have certainly assisted us.
If you boil that down, when we look at our sister provinces—specifically Newfoundland and Saskatchewan—New Brunswick is a have-not province, and we feel that mining could certainly be a major contributor in converting us from a have-not province to a have province. So we really are focused on the mining aspect.
Currently we have one major expansion going on in potash. The PCS mine is expanding to the tune of $1.7 billion. That's about three-quarters of the way completed.
We have two mid-sized base-metal mines, lead-zinc mines in the north, that are currently under feasibility.... One has actually begun development. And we have two mid-sized tungsten-molybdenum mines in the south that are in the feasibility stage.
That being said, we've certainly had our issues. We have a history of environmental impact from mining: acid mine drainage resulting in polluted rivers; soil and air contamination from smelting; and significant land disturbance from a coal strip mining operation. But it should be pointed out that this damage was done at a time when really there were no environmental rules in place to speak of. It was back in the 1950s and 1960s, as I said, which is recent history.
Today we do have a very rigorous mine approval process and very comprehensive legislation to back it up.
That being said, in line with what the previous presenter said, there is always room for improvement, and we recognize that. We are looking at regulatory reform. The current government is focused on that with regard to trying to strike a balance so that we have transparent, effective, efficient, and comprehensive legislation. That is on the table for review to try to deal with some of the issues that were raised by the previous presenters.
Aboriginal title and participation are new to New Brunswick. We haven't really had to deal with those until recently, and of course they're a little different here than they are in the western provinces, with our treaties. So we're kind of on the learning curve in that regard. However, we established a lands and resources bilateral table in 2010 to initiate discussion with first nations communities regarding natural resource management activities, licences, and policies. That's ongoing, and we feel it is progressing very well.
As well, we've had one company, Trevali, which I referred to, actually start the development of a base-metal mine in the northern part of the province. They've entered into an impact benefits agreement with the local Mi 'kmaq and Maliseet Nations, and everybody seems quite pleased with the results of that. We looked at that. This company is from Manitoba, so they have experience in entering into these agreements. They have set the benchmark for New Brunswick, and I think they've done an excellent job in that regard.
One of the biggest issues for us at the moment—and again this is probably very different from what you would find in the north, because we are a small province—is social licence. We're dealing with that certainly on the shale gas side, but that is spilling over into the mining side as well. The issue there is that the general public can be very negatively influenced by minority interest groups that have what we feel are somewhat biased objectives. There is distribution of significant misinformation through social networking. The social network in New Brunswick is alive and real and very well connected. Sometimes this is viewed as an urban versus rural dispute as well. With some of the mines being in rural settings, rural people feel they may be impacted more than people living in cities will be.
People fail to make the connection between the opportunity for economic development that mining brings and the ability to afford all of those necessary services, such as medical services, education, infrastructure, etc. They don't seem to really put that together very well. They view it as mainly big companies making a lot of money, coming in and making a mess and leaving, and leaving the cleanup for us.
Royalties were mentioned. They also feel that the government is not getting their fair share of royalties and that we need to do something about that. This current government is reviewing royalties, all royalties, in the province, so there may be an impact or a change there.
They also feel that there's insufficient legislation and oversight. We feel that our legislation is certainly comprehensive at this time, but there's always room for improvement.
They have a definitive position on mine development. They feel it will impact the natural and social environments negatively. It may or it may not. It's being presented as a fact that if you do this, it will impact those environments.
Bottom line, they don't trust or believe either industry or government when they try to explain the situation.
I just want to mention some of the federal government initiatives and the role the federal government can maybe play.
We would suggest that the focus of the federal government be on the environment, safety, and health. One of the initiatives the federal government has come out with, which I think is quite positive, is the Major Projects Management Office. That seems to be working very well. We haven't had a lot of exposure to that, again, because a lot of the projects we have aren't major. They're smaller.
The green mining initiative, again, is something we feel is a very positive step forward. We feel the federal government should be the coordinator of that type of thing.
It is the same for MEND, or the mine environment neutral drainage program. That's proven to be very beneficial for us, in many respects.
The last thing is not really mining. It's Environment Canada's approach to shale gas. It asked the Council of Canadian Academies to do an assessment of the state of scientific knowledge on the potential environmental impacts of shale gas development. Again, I would go back to saying that the public tends not to believe industry or government, but they do tend to believe academia from time to time, so I think that's a very positive approach.
Having said all that, I'll sum up very quickly.
There are a lot of good things going on. There are a lot of issues out there. One of the key things is communicating to the public everything we are doing along these lines to try to address these issues.That's what we find the most difficult part of this. I think there's a role for the federal government in that respect. Communication is really key, certainly in a province like New Brunswick, to inform people about what we are doing and how we're doing it and to tell them that we do have their best interests at heart.
That ends my presentation.
