Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As for the reason we were asked to go off the committee, in order for the Klondike Placer Miners' Association to stay on the committee, they wanted to bring in a number of NGOs as well, and we'd had previous experience with the Yukon placer committee. When you have a number of NGOs, the industry, and the government, nothing goes very quickly or very efficiently.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, I'm actually very familiar with them. I work with the Klondike Placer Miners' Association. I also help some of the miners try to get their licensing. If you don't live here, you have no way to know if a stream is large or small, or intermittent, or has rapids on it or waterfalls, or anything of that nature.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the streams that is considered navigable is Henderson Creek, which is about a foot deep, or 0.3 metres deep, and about four feet wide, and of course it's much narrower and smaller in certain areas and wider in other areas. So some very small streams—streams that would only be navigable by a kayak in high-water levels—would be considered navigable under my understanding of the current definition of a vessel in the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's true. Transport Canada originally had a whole number of streams. Basically, every steam was tied up in licensing. And they did release a few of the very smallest streams and concluded them non-navigable. Then the Navigable Waters Protection Act does not apply to non-navigable streams.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not part of these negotiations, but I do understand that a contingent from NavCanada did come and meet with the Yukon government and there was some kind of an arrangement to speed up placer applications. However, it did not go as far as to offload the responsibility or delegate the Yukon inspectors to carry out the inspections.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't think you need a single additional inspector, because those same placer inspectors, the Yukon placer inspectors, go out to every site at least once a year. So it's not a matter of more personnel, it's just a matter of those same placer inspectors, the same fellows, wearing one more hat.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, it is, mainly in British Columbia. The area of Atlin has the most placer mining. The streams there are officially deregulated, which means they have very few restrictions. They're normally inspected once a year. I also work in the Atlin area, so I know it quite well. There's a small amount of activity in the Quesnel and Cranbrook areas of British Columbia.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Two hundred kilometres just to Toad River from Fort Nelson. It would be about three hundred kilometres to Watson.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I know it's hard to change legislation, but a lot of it is just inadequate knowledge of the local streams and inadequate personnel in the department. If there was somebody based in Whitehorse, he could actually drive out and look at the stream, instead of wondering if it was navigable or not, and instead of having a number of inspectors arrive at a placer mine site.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  They work for the Government of Yukon. They're Yukon placer inspectors. They work for the Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources. They're the regular mines inspectors. They have an agreement with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans whereby they're allowed to enforce the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Act as far as placer mines go.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Five minutes is a very short time to explain the legislative background of placer mining, but in a nutshell these are two separate initiatives. DFO already has an agreement with the Yukon government to allow the inspectors to inspect on their behalf. In December 2002, the then Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Mr.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not that familiar with the recent changes to Transport Canada's Navigable Waters Protection Act, but the KPMA would like the same arrangement that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has with the placer inspectors. They're basically deputized to inspect on behalf of DFO.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Good afternoon. I am Randy Clarkson. I'm here on behalf of the Klondike Placer Miners' Association. Our requests are fairly simple. We're asking this committee to recommend to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans that she include the KPMA directly in the development and implementation of the fish management system for placer mining.