Throughout the year, Canada’s need to compete for highly-mobile global mining investment became a central message in MAC’s advocacy and communications efforts. It also became the theme of our Mining Day on the Hill lobby day in November 2013, where 60 of our mining delegates carried this message to senior government and political officials throughout the National Capital Region. In our keynote speech that day, we identified three areas where industry and government can work together to enhance our competitive advantage and seize the growth opportunities in the future. This included overcoming our skills shortage and increasing diversity in our workforce, building critical infrastructure to enable new mining development in increasingly rural and northern areas, and ensuring taxation and regulatory systems encourage responsible mining development.
MAC was very active on regulatory issues throughout the year, largely as a result of significant legislative changes that the federal government introduced in 2012. This included the enactment of a new Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, changes to the Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act, and the review of the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations. Throughout 2013, MAC advocated for the mining industry’s needs at the federal level for a reasonable, timely and efficient environment assessment and permitting process, as well as federal-provincial coordination and a smooth implementation of the legislative changes. Although federal environmental assessments are much better managed today than they were five years ago, much still needs to be done to ensure the promised reforms achieve their intended outcomes.
For more details on the topics discussed here, and on other aspects of MAC’s work, we encourage you to read the Annual Report in full.
