The Mount Polley Mine tailings-pond breach is the latest in a string of environmental disasters in B.C., and one that threatens to cast yet another chill over the entire natural-resource sector, from natural gas to aquaculture to pipelines to hardrock mining.
What resource company can make a profit when the provincial government permits these environmental disasters, then tries to shirk responsibility? What company wants to invest the billions of dollars it takes to develop a new mine when the government won’t provide it with appropriate guidelines to protect their investments? It’s not entirely industry’s fault: that fault lies at the feet of the provincial government.
I worked as a mine geologist to pay for my university education. Later, I worked on the environmental side of hardrock mine development.
It’s a common story for many people: most of the wealth that makes B.C. what it is today was developed as a consequence of taking advantage of the incredible natural resources of this province. Often this has been done brutally: clearcuts stretching to the horizon, rivers polluted with mine leachate and farm salmon escaping net pens. Laws and regulations have been developed to reduce these affronts to beautiful B.C., but there are few government employees to enforce them.
We can’t have development without a strong regulatory framework and enforcement. If there is one thing we have learned in this province, it’s that without proper government regulations and enforcement, natural resource extraction comes to a halt: Clayoquot Sound, the Great Bear Rainforest, the Northern Gateway Pipeline and salmon aquaculture all demonstrate this.
The primary thing we have learned in ecology is that everything is connected. The same is true with the economy. The ecology/economy divide is an artificial one, especially in British Columbia: B.C. depends on natural-resource development to pay for all the services we hold so dear, and the beautiful natural environment is what attracts so many of us to this province.
The government is doing a terrible job of creating the conditions industry needs to conduct business and that British Columbians need to live comfortably in the best place on Earth.
Where is the public support for natural gas, forestry, salmon aquaculture, mining and Northern Gateway? Ruined by poor government consultation with First Nations, lax regulations and especially the absence of enforcement by provincial and federal levels of government.
Where is the public service that was once the best in Canada, that studied and managed the unique biodiversity of B.C. (the highest biodiversity in Canada and a globally significant diversity hotspot)? Government’s abdication of its stewardship responsibilities over the last 15 years leaves industry to police itself — a position it is neither qualified nor motivated to assume.
It’s time we invested in properly trained staff at arm’s length from industry. That is, they work for us, the taxpayers of B.C., as provincial government employees. This is not just in the public’s interest, but industry’s, too.
We are blessed with incredible natural resources in B.C. and Canada, though the current political climate keeps these natural resources in the ground. The frequency of environmental disasters precludes the development of the necessary social licence to develop our natural resources for all British Columbians.
It’s time to change this so we all benefit: the mining sector, the fishing industry that depends on those clean lakes and rivers to return fish to the sea, and all the other industries that draw on what nature provides.
Most important, British Columbians must benefit, those of us who have chosen to make our lives here for the healthy and beautiful environment, our most important natural resource.
My four-year-old son loves big mining dump trucks, but he loves watching salmon spawn even more.
Brian Starzomski is the Ian McTaggart-Cowan professor of biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration at the University of Victoria’s School of Environmental Studies.
