The rush to deregulate mining will put wildlife and people at risk

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about mining lately. As Canada confronts ongoing economic and geopolitical instability, the industry is pitching itself as a possible solution while provincial and federal governments of all stripes promise to speed projects along by reducing so-called red tape.

This can translate into calls to reduce or eliminate regulations such as environmental assessments, species protections and Indigenous consultation and consent. But regulations exist for a reason: to help minimize mining impacts on local communities, habitat and wildlife, and to ensure the public has a voice in the process.

The current rush to deregulate, beginning with legislation in Ontario and B.C., is largely driven by rising demand for “critical minerals,” materials like copper, cobalt, graphite, lithium and rare earth elements, which are essential to a wide range of high-tech products.

But as critical as these minerals may be to modern technologies, it is just as critical that the process of extracting them be done responsibly.

It is imperative that acceleration efforts do not come at the cost of long-term harm to nature and communities, or to Indigenous rights. This means recognizing and addressing potential air and water impacts, the integrity of ecosystems, and the health and well-being of the people and species affected.

Mining activities and related infrastructure (like access roads, railways and deepwater ports) are often located within traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples and sometimes overlap with important areas for biodiversity. Rushing this expansion has the potential to harm the communities who live there and the nature that surrounds them.

For example, mining activities can contaminate water and reduce air quality; disrupt Indigenous land use, cultural practices and priorities, and food security; fragment, degrade and deforest habitat; and otherwise increase pressure on already at-risk species. That’s why a strong regulatory regime that identifies and addresses these harms is important.

The proposed Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, for example, would give cabinet the power to exempt projects like those within the “Ring of Fire” region from provincial and municipal laws — including those that protect the environment — while dismantling laws that protect endangered species.

In B.C., the just-passed Infrastructure Projects Act, Bill 15, similarly gives its provincial cabinet expanded powers to bypass the current environmental review process for projects deemed “provincially significant.”

First Nations, municipal leaders, community groups and environmental organizations have all expressed concerned with this approach. WWF-Canada has been very vocal about the risks to wildlife and nature in Bill 5’s proposed changes, including in a letter-writing campaign that more than 4,600 of you joined, and in a media statement that makes clear, “This is not red-tape reduction; it’s environmental deregulation with no accountability at the cost of species extinctions and ecological collapse.”

Digging into mining’s impacts

Canada is home to more than 10,000 orphaned and abandoned mines, many of which date back to a time of weaker regulation. These sites often require extensive cleanup efforts, typically funded by taxpayers. One example is the Kam Kotia mine near Timmins, Ont., which has cost Ontario taxpayers more than $75 million to remediate — and it is just one of the 5,700 abandoned mines in the province.

Operating mines can also pose serious risks. In 2014, the tailings dam at the Mount Polley copper-gold mine in B.C. failed, releasing roughly 25 billion litres of contaminated waste across northern Secwépemc territory. The long-term environmental and social impacts are still being addressed, and legal action by the Xatśūll First Nation is ongoing to prevent further expansion of the dam.

Impacts also occur in the absence of accidents. Inuit communities have raised concerns for years about Baffinland’s Mary River iron mine in Nunavut, citing disruptions to wildlife such as narwhal, bowhead and beluga whales, walrus and polar bears.

A proposed expansion of the project would involve building a railway through caribou habitat and increasing shipping traffic through ecologically important areas like the Hudson Strait, a whale “superhighway,” and Foxe Basin, a bowhead and walrus summering area.

The importance of mining to Canada’s economy is widely acknowledged. But we must also acknowledge — and take action to eliminate or minimize — the risks to nature, communities and the economy when the regulations that manage those risks are stripped away.