Now NS Mining Association blames Parks & Protected Areas for economic woes

The overwhelming abundance of Parks and Protected Areas in Nova Scotia, 12% of our land area, is frequently cited as the reason intensive forestry is required on the rest, at least the rest that can’t be negotiated with private owners at bargain basement prices.

Now the mining industry has joined the chorus, claiming that “The [Parks and Protected Areas] Plan is potentially costing Nova Scotians approximately 291-356 jobs by preventing mineral exploration and development in protected areas. The Plan is also costing Nova Scotians $16-$19.6 million per year in lost wages… ” View MANS docs.

Private landowners still have the option of refusing to clearcut their land, but they don’t have a Go Away option when a mining concern comes knocking.

In Nova Scotia, where the landowner does not willingly sell his or her land to a mining company who has obtained a lease to the mineral rights, the mining company can apply pursuant to the Mineral Resource Act seeking a vesting order to take title of the land from the landowner and place it in the mining company. At that point, the procedure becomes an expropriation triggering the Nova Scotia Expropriation Act and its compensation provisions. The lessee mining company becomes the expropriating authority: an interesting example of when expropriation can take place by a corporation rather than by the government directly. Source: pattersonlaw.ca, 2014

The Parks and Protected Areas, however, remain out-of-bounds. It seems the mining concerns want it all.

For more about some of our finest legislation and hard-pressed mining industry, see Corporate bullying: Expropriating for private purposes in Nova Scotia. A couple of updates: Approval of the Black Point Quarry Project (NSE Apr 26, 2016) and Gold mine hires 140 workers as it eyes ‘aggressive’ exploration – CBC Nov 13, 2016 (“Three years ago, Atlantic Gold won a dispute with a family in the Moose River Gold Mines area that didn’t want to sell its land to make way for the project. The province eventually sided with the company and expropriated the land.”)

Then view EGSPA, the commitment made by all political parties to make Nova Scotia “one of the most environmentally and economically sustainable places in the world by 2020”. We can hope they meant mean it.

Thx to RP for shining some light on the most recent threat to our Parks and Protected Areas.