Environmentalists call for reform to Canadian mining regulations

A new report by the International Boreal Conservation Campaign says Canada's 150-year-old system of free-entry access needs to be replaced.

The campaign is a privately funded initiative supporting boreal forest conservation.

"The free-entry system hearkens back to the bygone days when prospectors roamed the land with pickaxes and shovels," Larry Innes, director of the Canadian Boreal Initiative, said from Toronto.

The current rules allow any licensed prospector to establish a mineral claim without first consulting with nearby communities or taking into account unique ecosystems or wildlife habitat. Environmental oversight doesn't come until later.

That claim then supercedes other proposals for the land such as conservation. It can also complicate aboriginal land claim negotiations.

The report says there are now about 583,000 square kilometres of mineral claims staked within Canada's boreal forest - about 10 per cent of the region's total area. It finds conflicts right across the country - from British Columbia, where most resource development occurs on land still in a claims dispute, to Quebec where the number of claims has doubled since 2004.

Although mining companies have long suggested that small, temporary exploration camps have little environmental impact, Innes begs to differ.

"The reality is most exploration is an intensive activity over a short period of time," he said. "We know low-level airplane activity can have a startle effect on sensitive species like woodland caribou."

As well, he said, pre-existing mineral claims make it difficult to develop long-term land-use plans that determine in advance which areas are environmentally significant.

"They do create conflict with conservation goals and community values."

The report calls for rules that would require some kind of advance permit before mining companies could get onto the land for a look. That way, Innes said, all parties would know right at the start where mining would be allowed.

Innes said he believes the industry is ready for a change.

"We expect the prospectors and mining companies are ready for the conversation," he said. "It's not a question of whether change is necessary, it's what change is necessary."