Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by mentioning the extraordinary participation by a variety of organizations during the hearings of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs on the Act to amend the Yukon Quartz Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act.
Through their testimony and their involvement in the consultation process, they defended their interests against the government and thus the merits of this legislation.
I am referring to the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, the Council of Yukon First Nations, the Government of the Yukon, the Klondike Placer Miners, the North Slope Wildlife Management Advisory Council, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the village of Mayo, Wesmin Resources Limited, the Yukon Chamber of Mines, the Yukon Conservation Society, the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board, the Yukon Mining Advisory Committee, the Yukon Prospectors Association, the Yukon Chamber of Commerce, the Yukon Outfitters Association, and finally the Teelit Gwich'in Council.
That made a rather long list, but I needed to demonstrate that Bill C-6 is a general reflection of the concerns expressed in committee. Of course, some wanted more, some, less. The bill we have before us now in third reading is characterized by a series of technical details on the environment and natural resources. It brings mining operations in line with today's concerns.
What is more, it confers upon the Yukon territorial government and the First Nations the responsibility for proper resource management, and for implementing standards in keeping with their lifestyle and with respect the environment.
As you are aware, this is not a bill that dropped out of the blue, or just appeared overnight. We took the trouble to find out what type of consultations had gone before. In 1990, an advisory committee on the Yukon mining industry was set up, and we in the standing committee recently heard comments from people in the north, as well as from some fifteen different organizations.
No one in this House will be able to accuse us of saying: "This is the way it is going to be". Not only does this bill amend legislation, which dates back to 1906, in the case of placer mining, and to 1924, in the case of quartz mining, but it also provides the Yukon Territory with new regulatory powers.
Perhaps we should know more about this territory, which seems so far away.
The name Yukon was used for the first time in 1846 by a Hudson's Bay Company trader, John Bell, from the Indian word Yuchoo which means ``the biggest river''. The Yukon river is the fifth longest river in North America.
The first European visitors in modern times were Russian explorers, who sailed up and down the coast in the 18th century and traded with the Indians. The Hudson's Bay Company penetrated into the interior in the 1840s. With the discovery of gold near Dawson City in 1896, the Klondike became one of the most populated regions in the Canadian Northwest. The sudden population explosion during the gold rush led the federal government to give the Yukon more political power. In 1898, the Yukon was officially constituted to ensure Canadian jurisdiction. The Yukon Act provided for the appointment of a commissioner and the creation of an elected legislative assembly.
As a territory, Yukon does not have provincial status, although it did acquire a similar form of government in 1979. This means the Canadian government maintains its authority over bodies of water, land, forests and non-renewable resources.
How could someone be against a bill which reduces the paternalistic authority of the federal government and provides for a partial decentralisation and environmental standards which, by the way, were almost or totally non existent before.
How could we disagree, knowing that the Act to amend the Yukon Quartz Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act is the result of a long negotiation and consultation process?
Our only comment is that this act will have to be reviewed in a few years from now in order to adjust its environmental standards to those of other provinces, such as Quebec and Ontario. However, we are fully confident that the Government of the Yukon and the native communities are capable of establishing their own standards according to their needs.
The present population of the Yukon is close to 28,000, of which 23 per cent are natives and 60 per cent live in Whitehorse.
Mining, which accounts for 30 per cent of the Yukon's economic activity, is by far its main industry. Tourism, which offers an opportunity to live in a wild area with a unique and relatively intact environment, is an equally important source of jobs and services. Fur trade is practised by about 3 per cent of the population, mainly native people. Dawson City also has a small fishing industry, exporting salmon and selling other species of fish to local consumers.
In short, the consensus, or should I rather say the compromise, proposed by the Act to Amend the Yukon Quarts Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act will allow the territory greater autonomy in the management of its resources.
The Bill under consideration is rather like a collective agreement, in the sense that if a new amendment or a new change to this bill was to be approved, another group would ask for more or would totally disagree with it.
This is why we support the implementation of this bill in its form at second reading. I have been talking to you all this time about Bill C-6 without having explained what it is about. I am sure a brief summary of the different parts of this bill will benefit the honourable Mps here in this House and the audience.
The Act to amend the Yukon Quartz Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act, Bill C-6, is the result of representations made by the Government of the Yukon in order to find a solution to the environmental problems generated by mining activities.
The Yukon government wanted this solution to be developed and implemented by the Yukon community. This new bill now provides for environmental protection since, in addition to the requirements applicable to licenses and to levels of activity, it will also be subject to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
By the way, it should be understood that, in the past, environmental concerns came far behind economic concerns. At the time, gold mining was almost a cottage industry. People would enter the streams, shake their sieves, collect a nugget and throw the gravel over their shoulders.
The countryside there is extraordinary. As you know, it is the land of the midnight sun. However, when you look down you also see a lunar landscape around the Midnight Dome. It was caused by reckless development. Piles of earth were left there and completely spoil the scenery. It is easy to see that, at the time, the environment was not at all a concern, unlike today.
The bill before us seeks to promote a behaviour that is more respectful of nature than in those days. At the time, people were just not concerned about the environment. They were concerned about finding gold. The land was so vast and so sparsely populated that people did not care. Today, we have to care. But we would certainly say that on the whole, this piece of legislation is a worthwhile effort. There is a system to approve various classes.
I mentioned that there was no environmental protection, but there are indeed now various classes which will require some approval and help discipline the operation as such for a better protection of the environment.
Thus, class I activities require no preliminary approval but must comply with existing regulation. So the principle is the following: when you go from class I to class II, the regulations get a little stricter. Also, class II activities require prior notification being given to a federal authority.
As for class III activities, they require the advance submission and approval of an operating plan. So, as you can see, the bigger the operations are, the stricter the regulations become.
Class IV is certainly the more stringent because not only is an operating plan required to be presented and approved, but it must be subjected to public consultations. For those who are less environment-orientated and more economy-orientated, this has become something of a pain, because it only takes a couple of people opposed to the project to jeopardize it.
In class IV, we will certainly be dealing with large scale projects requiring public consultations, therefore a lot more preparation on the part of those who want to develop the resources, to provide environmental data to the groups and individuals who will scrutinize class IV projects.
According to the minister, the regulations under the proposed legislation define various levels of activity. The result of compromises in committee, and the subject of many observations, these levels relate to the size of mining exploration projects, in terms of how many people will be in a camp, how many square meters of trenches will be dug, how many square meters of top soil will be removed, how many kilometres of road will be built, how heavy
vehicles will be and how many kilometres will they cover, how many litres of fuel will be stockpiled, etc.
For example, a camp for five individuals for 150 person-days could be in class I and one for the same number of people but for more than 150 person-days could fall into class II, III or IV. The digging or the ditches could not exceed 400 cubic metres per claim per year in class I, whereas the number of cubic metres could reach 1,000 in class II, 5,000 in class III and more than 5,000 in class IV. All terrain vehicles would be allowed depending on the period of the year, the weight of the vehicle and the distance to be covered. During summertime, only low ground pressure vehicles would be in class I, a 30-tonne vehicle covering a maximum distance of 15 kilometres could be in class II and if the distances were to exceed 15 or 40 kilometres, the project would then fall into classes III or IV respectively. No road construction would be allowed in class I and the class would depend on the number of kilometres of road or trail built.
If all activities in a project qualify for class I except one, for example a fuel stockpile of 30,000 litres, then the project will be put in class II.
The proposed legislation will require all applicants to supply a security that could equal the approximate cost of redressing all adverse environmental effects. It also provides for the modification and transfer of operating plans and licenses.
It establishes an application and inspection system for the provisions of the legislation itself and of the related regulations, and it defines offences and penalties.
Naturally, the legislation grants powers to make regulations for its enforcement. The regulations on the utilisation of mineral lands for quartz mining and placer mining will take effect whenever the proposed legislation is passed or shortly thereafter. Regulations on the reclamation of quartz mine sites that are already in operation under the Quartz Mining Act will be made at a later date. Regulations development is in consultation with interested parties.
In a different connection, officials did everything in their power to reassure us by saying: "Indeed, what we are looking at in terms of the environment, categories and operations, is not in contradiction with what has already been granted to Yukon's first nations in connection with self-government or land claims".
So, we must say this act is the result of a great compromise among highly varied groups, from environmentalists to mine operators. Furthermore, we can also say we did our utmost in the consultation process so that native bands had their say.
The Standing Committee on Indian Affairs and Northern Development set up teleconferences in Whitehorse, Ottawa and so on.
Speaking of consultation, I would like to define for the government what consultation really is, something it often confuses with what may be called the "lobby power".
Indeed, consultation is really effective when, first of all, the people affected by this bill also have equal opportunity to express their opinions and defend their rights.
Second, when the government does not put the people before a fait accompli and tell them at the last minute: ``You can always talk, but it will not change much''. Lastly, when the government clearly indicates what it intends to do as a legislator and provides all the appropriate information to the public so that the people can make up their own minds about the bill.
Before supporting this bill, we checked if every individual and every organization who wanted to give evidence had the opportunity to do so. In fact, I gave you the list earlier on. Also, we support Bill C-6 because the situation in the Yukon is quite urgent. Estimates for 1995 show that mineral production in the Yukon generated $185 million, an increase of around 115 per cent over 1994. Production from more than 200 placer deposits increased in value by 38.2 per cent to reach some $78 million.
According to the Yukon Chamber of Mines, exploration expenses in the Yukon came to a little under $40 million in 1995, almost double the $21 million reported in 1994. Expenses for development purposes rose from $11 million in 1994 to $57 million in 1995, reflecting the development of new gold mines in Brewery Creek and Nansen Mount. For a fourth consecutive year, exploration and development expenses have gone up in the Yukon.
Six other mining projects are currently the subject of environmental impact studies. If the results are positive, development on these projects should start in 1996 or 1997.
Upset because the Yukon Mining Advisory Committee was taking too long to make environmental changes to the Yukon Quartz Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act, the environmental community challenged the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's environmental assessment and licensing process. In December, the courts ruled in favour of the department.
This is a matter of urgency for the environment. Area wildlife, which is important not only to the aboriginal people but also to hunters, tourists and the population at large, includes moose, caribou, mountain goats, bighorns, bears and other furbearers. The
passing of Bill C-6 is essential to the conservation of these resources.
Finally, I wish to reiterate my support and the support of the Bloc Quebecois for Bill C-6, an act to amend the Yukon Quartz Mining Act and the Yukon Placer Mining Act, which, I remind the House, reflects a broad consensus among the various stakeholders. This is why I propose that this bill be adopted as is by the House.
