Taxpayers are being put at serious financial risk by gaping holes in B.C.’s mining regulations that allow companies to underfund mine remediation or disaster costs, says a new report by economist Robyn Allan.
The report, funded by the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, describes financial assurance policies for mine site reclamation as “woefully inadequate” and estimates there is more than $1.5-billion in unfunded liability — meaning taxpayers are on the hook both for mine site reclamation, when a company leaves a contaminated site, and for catastrophic events when a company is unable to pay.
“A regime to ensure mine owners have sufficient financial resources to pay for environmental damage and third-party losses from unintended mine accidents is non-existent,” wrote Allan, former CEO of ICBC and former senior economist for B.C. Central Credit Union.
The UBCIC report comes on the heels of a scathing assessment of B.C.’s mining practices by B.C. Auditor General Carol Bellringer and renewed pressure from U.S. politicians to have transboundary mines along the Canadian/U.S. border come under the scrutiny of an International Joint Commission.