Welland Tribune e-edition

Minister O’Regan should work to reduce Canada’s mining footprint

DONNA ASHAMOCK AND UGO LAPOINTE Donna Ashamock is an Eeyou/Inninew (Cree) member affiliated with Fort Albany First Nation and co-chair of MiningWatch Canada. Ugo Lapointe is Canada program co-ordinator at MiningWatch Canada.

The federal minister of natural resources, Seamus O’Regan Jr., recently cosigned a series of opinion pieces across the country that cross an ethical line.

In these letters, Minister O’Regan joins the CEO of Canada’s largest mining lobby group to promote the interests of the very same industry that he is supposed to regulate on behalf of Canadians.

Under cover of the need to supply materials for “clean technologies” and a “green economy,” the letters signed by Minister O’Regan use overstated rhetoric commonly employed by the Mining Association of Canada to further the interest of its members at the expense of alternate solutions.

Not once do the letters ever address the potential of recycling, circular economy and mineral efficiency policies to help supply those materials instead of digging more holes out of the ground.

Nor do the letters acknowledge the increasing social and environmental costs associated with mining raw materials.

Minister O’Regan should listen to independent experts and scientists, including those of the UN International Resource Panel, urging high-income countries to drastically reduce their material consumption as a fundamental condition to environmental sustainability.

According to the OECD’s latest review, Canada ranks worst of all G7 countries in mineral efficiency, recycling and circular economy. It remains among the most material-intensive economies in the world.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates Canada’s domestic yearly material consumption at 28.8 tonnes per capita, higher than the United States (18.6 tonnes), twice the world and European averages (12.3 and 14 tonnes, respectively), and 14 times the average material footprint of low-income countries (2 tonnes).

Mining has also grown to be the largest producer of solid waste in the country. It today generates 30 times the amount of waste that all Canadians, municipalities and other industries combined produce. Much of this waste is toxic and a liability for future generations.

If Minister O’Regan truly wants to support a green economy transition, he should lead Canada in taking bold steps to reverse these trends.

We support the recent call by the Gaia Foundation and 180 scientists, communities, and organizations to urgently decarbonize and dematerialize our economies at the same time.

To consume within ecological limits, this European-led initiative proposes to introduce legally-binding targets to reduce Europe’s material footprint by up to 70 per cent from the current levels, down to 4.4 tonnes per capita.

For the transportation sector, this means not only the setting of “zero emission vehicles” targets, but also targets to cap and ultimately dramatically reduce the number of vehicles on the roads, while increasing high quality and affordable public transport.

Recent studies indicate that proper investments, infrastructures and policies in recycling alone could also reduce the mining of raw materials for batteries by up to 40-60 per cent while bolstering downstream economies.

We invite Minister O’Regan to listen to all Canadians and to hear the growing call made by independent scientists, Indigenous peoples and organizations around the world to carefully rethink our economy, support a just transition, and not repeat the mistakes of the past.

OPINION

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2021-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://wellandtribune.pressreader.com/article/281560883761010

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