Trish Jacques is board chair of the Association for Mineral Exploration.
Global tensions, trade wars and geopolitics put Canada’s natural resources front and centre in our recent federal election. Last week — and immediately after the election — British Columbia’s mineral exploration and mining sectors gathered in Prince George for the Minerals North conference.
Reaction to the election result, its implications and how we can address systemic issues came up time and time again. For B.C., the numbers speak volumes: A 26-per-cent drop in exploration spending and a 45-per-cent drop in metres drilled in just the past two years and during a commodity boom. Correspondingly, we have not seen a new critical mineral mine open in more than a decade.
At Minerals North, much of the conversation was about how to get things back on track. We must ensure the critical minerals that are in such great demand to build everything from solar panels to defence systems come from Canada and support Canadian families and jobs.
For the rest of this column: https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/opinion-carney-must-move-quickly-to-attract-investment-to-exploration-10635000