New Government Urged To Improve Mining Climate

New Government Urged To Improve Mining Climate

Friday, November 23, 2007 at 14:02

The executive director of the Saskatchewan Mining Association says the new government in the province must take steps to become more competitive in the industry.

Pam Schwann says the provincial rules governing mining could be streamlined in many areas, and ignoring them will cost the industry.

Schwann says the province’s resource surcharge could come down, and systematic reviews on the entire royalty structure need to happen more frequently.

She says her group also wants to see the government do more to address the skilled labour shortage in the sector, and fix redundancies throughout the regulatory system.

An an example, Schwann says rules requiring major projects to undergo both a provincial and federal environmental review are unnecessary.

Schwann says one company in B.C. used the federal review office on major projects to gain approval on a mining initiative.

She believes that same approach could work in this province.