USW Local 6500 Bill 71 …

USW Local 6500 Bill 71 “Building Better Mines” Consultation Response
April 6, 2023

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United Steelworkers Local 6500 has a rich mining history. We are one of the largest mining locals in Ontario with over 2,500 members and almost 7,000 active retirees. We have been representing miners and mining plant workers in Sudbury for over 60 years. We live, play, fish, and hunt in the same communities that we mine, smelt and refine the ore from. Because of these factors, the state of the environment before, during, and after mining takes place is of the utmost importance to us.

As the need for critical minerals becomes ever more vital, new, and exciting opportunities for our members and our community are presenting themselves. Expansion and the development of new mines will certainly increase our membership and will lead to more long-term jobs and prosperity in our communities. Our membership is a large contributor to our local economy and supports many community initiatives and charitable organizations like the United Way, to whom our membership helped donate over half a million dollars this year, or the Maison McCulloch Hospice where we sponsored the building of a new room. We were also a driving force to get a cancer treatment center here in Sudbury. This means families in the North can get treatment in the North. This alleviated the financial burden and stress placed on families which would have otherwise sought treatment south.

Changes to the Mining Act could be beneficial to all workplace parties if the process allows for stakeholder input, including meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities.

While we agree that phased closure plans and other efficiencies make sense for today's mining methods, some proposed amendments have our membership and our communities concerned.

Expansion of financial assurances permitted by the Act may lead to funds not being available to ensure proper closure of mines and the lands not being reclaimed. In saying this, there are examples of towns in Ontario, such as Timmins, where the grounds are decimated from the lack of reclamation once mining activities were halted. These communities now live with a legacy of environmental hazards that affect all aspects of life.

Recently, the Auditor General of Ontario made various recommendations regarding the management of environmental hazards associated with abandoned mines in the province of Ontario. In their report, entitled “Value-for-Money Audit: Management of Hazards and Emergencies in the Environment”, the auditor highlights that:

“3,942 or 69% of the 5,746 abandoned mine sites in Ontario are known to have mine features that were considered a hazard...”

Furthermore, only 3% of these sites have been “partially” rehabilitated while many more are unknown.

In 2015, the Auditor estimated that the cost of only 216 rehabilitated sites was $3.1 billion. Even with the current legislation, there is an unimaginable financial burden to the Crown and ultimately the taxpayers and community members who live in mining regions.

It is our concern that these proposed amendments could allow mining companies to profit without the liability of closure costs. In the event the province becomes a creditor in an insolvency filing, an inequitable amount of liability is shifted to the taxpayer while small communities will be devastated by undue hardships of land reconciliation. Current land royalties generated from mining are nowhere near the remediation costs.

Inaction on remediation could lead to the leaching of mining contaminants into our lakes, our rivers and our streams and cause far-reaching, devastating impacts on our ecosystems.

We challenge the province to ensure they maximize all opportunities to achieve a net benefit for the citizens of Ontario. This means caring for the safety of our miners. Ensuring the health care and education systems where mining takes place are well funded. Protecting the environment in which we live, play, fish and hunt and ensuring the land is properly reclaimed after mining has ceased. Prosperity for mining must not only be enjoyed by the proprietors but the wealth should be distributed to allow the communities, from which mining companies extract these non-renewable resources, to thrive. Please consider the following recommendations:

1. All lands that are mined should be rehabilitated to a state that is better than the condition the land was in at the beginning of the mining process, inclusive of tailing recovery mining.

2. If financial assurance is to be expanded, it is only temporary during the new phase of development and all previous stages are fully funded before any new approval begins.

3. If portions of closure plans are to be deferred, it is only temporary, and these deferrals are reconciled before moving on to the next phase of mine development.

4. The Mining Act is amended to raise royalties to ensure all Ontarians receive the net benefit of mining, distributing some of those royalties to the communities in which the ore is mined.

5. The Mining Act is amended to incorporate inflation into closure plans.

6. The “qualified person” under the Mining Act is clearly defined and guidelines are developed for the qualified person to follow.

7. A task force be set up to inspect mine closures for hazards and environmental issues with the power to remedy the issues.