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Tom Hoefer is the executive director of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines.
Editor’s note: The NWT & Nunavut Chamber of mines was the recent recipient of the NAPEG Professional Award of Merit in Geoscience, from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (NAPEG). NAPEG recognized the chamber for its, “dedication to, and support of, the North’s mineral resources industry.” This non-profit association is an advocate for responsible and sustainable mineral exploration and development for the North.
In regard to Frame Lake MLA Kevin O’Reilly’s attempted rebuke (Hansard, March 14) of Premier Bob McLeod’s speech at the recent Arctic Oil and Gas Symposium in Calgary, let me provide a different perspective.
While it may sound strange that a minerals guy would attend, I also attended the conference. Organizers invited me to share experiences and successes in Northern mineral resource development, something oil and gas developers might find helpful.
I was able to share with attendees the good work that mining has done in the North. That over 80 years of mining – with new mines developed in every decade – is not boom and bust.
How mining has contributed to our road, rail and hydropower infrastructure; to technical innovation with high efficiency diesel and wind power, ice highways and award-winning dike engineering. I shared how the NWT and Nunavut has for the first time in history passed $3 billion in mineral production and how mining is creating the most significant Indigenous training, employment, business and royalty benefits in our history.
I explained too, how Indigenous communities and governments now want to participate as owners in non-renewable resource development – not just mining but oil and gas as well.
For the rest of this column: https://nnsl.com/yellowknifer/guest-comment-i-beg-to-differ-with-mla-oreilly/