I wish to comment on the…

I wish to comment on the proposed changes to the Mining Act, as found in Schedule 5 of Bill 5.

While critical minerals are important, they are not a sufficient reason alone to override Indigenous rights and environmental protection, including for species at risk. These overrides are proposed in other portions of the Bill and should be withdrawn, as I have already commented upon.

It boggles my mind that there are so many new provisions for mining over the last few years but that existing powers available through regulations to guide enhanced Indigenous consultation and accommodation have not been advanced. Working out issues with Indigenous communities, with Treaty rights under unfulfilled promises, is even more critical to supply chains, development of specific minerals, and advancing mining without undue delays. This Schedule's changes avoid addressing such issues and only make it more difficult to work towards reconciliation: broadened Minister's powers, fewer triggers for consultation, prevention of law suits, and the like. Constitutional Indigenous rights will always trump provincial legislation.

Indeed, the whole mining system as free entry needs to be rethought in order to respect Indigenous rights to consultation and consent from the outset, rather than through later discovery of claims in areas not acceptable, and possibly harmful, to Indigenous communities. Coordinated teams may assist with advancing mining but should also be engaging in protecting Indigenous rights in an overhauled process.

Further, the scope of Ministerial discretion, along with the potential for legal carte blanche through Special Economic Zones (such as might be applied to the extensive Ring of Fire area), is anti-democratic. There are not sufficient criteria or safeguards proposed in the statue itself, and much of the details will be left to behind closed doors at the Cabinet or Minister's table. Further, court actions are precluded on wider grounds. This undermines public trust in the process, whether full information and public interest criteria are fully applied, and may lead to suspicion of too much private influence.

This Schedule's amendments need to be rethought rather than advanced in this Bill. As in the revised purpose of the Endangered Species Act in this Bill, the purpose needs to seek balance with Indigenous rights and environmental protection and thus rework the free entry system to respect Indigenous communities and their constitutional and international rights.