On the contrary, it's been much improved. The regulatory regime that's in place currently...mining reclamation is part of the mining process. They have to get involved to a great degree in all of those, either in the placer mining business or by going back over old mines and reopening them.
Canada might want to look at the Faro mine site, where I first came to the Yukon to work back in 1969 as mechanical superintendent. That is probably a liability in the billions of dollars for Canada today. That wasn't vetted through a process that was reasonable or sane, and that was back in the sixties.
But that said, today any of the new mines going through the process, like the Viceroy mine.... It went through the whole process, and it looks as if they have done a stellar job of reclaiming the area after the price of gold dropped to $280 and they were forced to close. But they're reopening.