In the official parliament…

In the official parliament transcripts MPP Jamie West and MPP John Vanthof make some really great points about striking out Director (public servant) and replacing it with Minister. Minister come and go, government changes, attitudes towards industry change and what companies need is certainty, legislation provides more certainty than changing Ministers. Allowing a Minister to make these decisions will only cause more uncertainty. Investors want clarify, they want certainties, they want to know all projects are treated the same. Investors want to know what to expect, Minister change over will slow this down. This will likely lead to less investment in Ontario.

My owner questions regarding the change from public servant (Director) to Minister are the following:

What will happen when the Minister of Mines is changed, will this slow down all the processes?
During elections will a Minister have enough time to devote to making decisions?
When something goes wrong how will the Minister or former Minister be held accountable for decisions made?

Politicians (Minister) should not get involved in the actual scientific permitting process. That is very cloudy in this bill, when you’re moving decision making to the minister. It’s very cloudy, and I don’t think the mining sector needs cloudiness. They need certainty. That’s what they all need.