Land Use Planning VS. Mineral Tenure

BC Mining Issue:By prioritizing mining interests, BC’s mineral tenure law prevents the implementation of land use plans that recognize, protect, and promote other valuable land use activities important to local communities.

Fair Mining Best Practice:Restrict mining activities according to land use plan designations and require land use plans to be in place before new mining activities are approved.

While the BC government recognizes the importance of land use plans to set resource and environmental goals, the ‘free-entry’ system continues to allow mining activities to take priority over other land use designations.

When I say planning, I mean it in the broadest sense: the process of a community coming together; identifying problems; setting goals – a vision – for a time period such as twenty or forty years; adopting a program to fulfill those goals; and modifying the programs as conditions change … All across the West, stresses have built to the point where it is hard to imagine a sustainable future without some form of planning – Charles Wilkinson (1992)

To ensure BC mineral tenure laws recognize, protect and promote other valuable land use activities essential to the vitality of local communities, BC mining law should:

• Restrict mining activities according to land use plan designations.
• Require land use plans to be in place before new mining activities are approved

In Northern Ontario, no mining claims can be staked on lands designated under community based land use plans that are inconsistent with mineral exploration.