Effect of tax laws on mineral exploration in Canada

Changes since 1972 in Canadian federal and provincial tax laws have eliminated many of the prior tax incentives offered to the mining industry. These changes provide an opportunity to study the effect of tax laws on a country's mineral resource development by comparing trends in mineral exploration in various provinces with adjoining regions, and by comparing these results with firm behaviour that would be expected from microeconomic analysis. Mineral producers have sought higher, more stable returns, resulting in shifts of exploration into political regions with more favourable and less changeable tax policies. Future supplies of mineral raw materials from a political region are dependent on current exploration effort, which is in turn influenced by the region's tax laws.     

Dissent and descent: tracing Canada’s environmental governance from regulatory beginnings to dismissal and reversals by the Harper government

Since Confederation in 1867, official Canadian settler government policy on the environment has sought to simultaneously preserve “wilderness” and exploit natural resources for market gain. In the 1960s, the nascent North American modern environmental movement pushed for stronger regulation on pollution and toxics – and a more institutionalised state-led response to environmental problems emerged. Throughout the last five decades, three principal “eras” of federal government reaction have emerged in response to mounting scientific evidence and public pressure to act on environmental issues. The first, from the late-1960s to mid-1980s, saw the development and implementation of early environmental policy and programmes. The second era, from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s co-occurred alongside the rise of the sustainable development paradigm, and is marked by the Canadian government’s attempt at leadership on the global stage. The third era, from the mid-2000s to 2015, demonstrates a shift from environmental regime-building and multilateral collaboration toward rollbacks and obstructionism. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the government of Canada reversed decades of progress and cooperation on the environment and sustainable development through its muzzling of government scientists, superficial co-optation of climate policy, rollbacks of environmental legislation and disparagement of environmental activists. In total, by shifting the federal government from a position of ineffective benevolence on environmental issues to one of contention and antagonism, the Harper government’s approach represents a departure from Canadian environmental governance norms and sought to remake the identity of Canada as an energy superpower inextricably tied to its oil and gas industry.     

Local sustainability programmes in comparative perspective: Canada and the USA

This paper seeks to explore Canada's response to the global dialogue over sustainable development on two dimensions: policy articulation at the federal and provincial levels and policy implementation at the municipal level. In order to accomplish these goals, this analysis begins by outlining a critical framework for understanding and assessing local sustainable development. Next, it examines the evolution of Canadian federal and provincial policies supportive of sustainable development, including the role played by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in enhancing this process. It then contrasts the Canadian promise and experience with that of the USA. In analysing local responses to the call for sustainable communities, it offers a case study of the Hamilton-Wentworth Vision 2020 sustainable community programme—a North American showcase of sustainable community initiatives.     

A tale from the Island of Laputa: The UNCHS (Habitat) crowding and health project from the perspective of two reluctant Laputans

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore Canada's response to the global dialogue over sustainable development on two dimensions: policy articulation at the federal and provincial levels and policy implementation at the municipal level. In order to accomplish these goals, this analysis begins by outlining a critical framework for understanding and assessing local sustainable development. Next, it examines the evolution of Canadian federal and provincial policies supportive of sustainable development, including the role played by non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) in enhancing this process. It then contrasts the Canadian promise and experience with that of the USA. In analysing local responses to the call for sustainable communities, it offers a case study of the Hamilton‐Wentworth Vision 2020 sustainable community programme—a North American showcase of sustainable community initiatives.     

Return to the River: Environmental Flow Policy in the United States and Canada1

Abstract: This paper provides an overview and summary of United States and Canadian federal, state, and provincial laws that offer some form of legal protection for environmental flows. Special attention is given to the new “second generation” law established in Texas and to ways western states are beginning to encourage transactions that help restore dewatered streams. Progress in the eastern states and some Canadian provinces to provide environmental flow protection is addressed. Based on this review, this paper presents recommended elements of a “model” environmental flow policy.     

International mining taxation issues and comparisons

This paper presents the quantitative results of recent research on Canada's minerals and metals industry, and its international competitiveness for mineral investment. The information and analysis presented are derived from the work of a Canadian government-industry task force that was created in 1991, under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Working Group on the Mineral Industry (IGWG). Much of this work deals with mining taxation in several Canadian provinces. More importantly, an attempt is made to evaluate the total tax burden that the mining industry must bear, on a project basis, at all levels from exploration through refining operations in many important competitor countries. While the focus of the paper is on an international comparison of mining taxation, some non-tax issues relating to Canada's competitiveness for mineral investment are addressed .     

Canada's Model Forests 20 years on: towards forest and community sustainability?

We review how Canadian Model Forests pursued forest and community sustainability over the course of two decades (1992–2012). Given its roots in the forest industry and forest science, Model Forest programming initially faced some challenges in pursuing the socio‐economic dimensions of sustainable forest management (SFM) in order to fulfil mandated community sustainability objectives. This was due, in part, to how objectives, stakeholders, and expertise were brought together to develop SFM. The programme helped to define sustainability and the SFM paradigm, advance forest science and social research, and bring together a mix of usually adversarial partners in the name of innovation. Ultimately, the termination of federal programming was linked to high‐level policy shifts, yet difficulty in delivering on the socio‐economic dimensions of SFM during a period of forest sector and community crisis was also a factor.     

Ghana: revival of the mineral sector

After almost two decades of decline, Ghana's mineral sector has rebounded significantly and is currently the main foreign exchange earner. Gold mining is the principal activity within the sector and accounted for 41 percent of total export earnings in 1996. This paper presents an overview of Ghana's mineral industry and covers mineral resources, production and reserves; mining investments; the role of mining in the economy; and the structure of the industry. An overview of the national mineral policy is also presented to depict the current regulatory and fiscal environment in which the industry operates. The spectacular reversal in mineral sector performance can be attributed to the adoption of World Bank recommendations in a new national mineral policy, the 1986 Minerals and Mining Law, aimed at revitalizing the sector.     

The mining industry and the natural environment

Environmental considerations have become central to future developments in the Australian mineral industry and have affected the level of federal involvement in the industry. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is now an important stage in the assessment of proposed mining projects. This paper examines two major federally sponsored inquiries into Australian mining projects — Fraser Island sand-mining and the Ranger uranium project — and then discusses subsequent events and future prospects.     

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act's Public Registry System

Public access to information and public participation in the environmental assessment (EA) process are cornerstones of the Canadian EA system. The Government's commitment is stated in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act which requires that federal departments establish and operate a public registry of information on the EAs they conduct to ensure convenient public access. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has taken the lead to ensure this commitment is met through the development of an innovative electronic Public Registry System. The system allows all federal departments conducting EAs to meet their obligations in a consistent and cost-effective manner. The public can easily access information on the 'who, what, when, where and why' of all EAs carried out by the federal departments, as well as document listings and the actual EA documents. Access is through the Internet, CD ROM, and in hardcopy.     

The development of first-possession rules in US mining, 1872–1920: theory, evidence, and policy implications

This paper applies a property rights framework to federal mineral lands in the western United States from the enactment of the Mining Law in 1872 until the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act for fossil fuels in 1920. There are two principal findings. First, the Mining Law appears to have been an effective means for assigning rights to mineral stocks on public lands (at least through 1920). This conclusion is supported by evidence from claim disputes in the West. Second, the impetus for the Mineral Leasing Act did not derive from the different physical characteristics of hardrock minerals and petroleum. The relevance of these conclusions to contemporary mineral policy is also discussed.     

National minerals policies and stakeholder participation for broad-based development in the southern African development community (SADC)

This paper explains how the well-accepted concept of improved stakeholder participation during mineral policy development leads to a national mineral policy that accommodates the diverging views and interests that allows wide acceptance of decisions, enhancing the success of implementation and, ultimately, national benefits. This process is based on lessons learnt during the South African experience and has been successfully applied in the development of the Namibian and Malawian national minerals policies. An effective policy in the SADC will engineer the delicate balance between poverty reduction and an internationally competitive minerals sector. This balance enhances the possibility of long-term economic growth and development in the SADC region. The overriding advantage of this strategy is that it generates ‘home-grown’ policy instruments and implementation of mineral law with which stakeholders can identify. This process presents a new challenge to traditional policy formulation strategies in emerging economies and the bottom-up approach, linked to wide political support, allows the potential realisation of national objectives.     

The measurement of resource rents: An application to Canadian nickel

Once the ‘risk’ of the industry is recognized, there are at least two sources of higher-than-normal returns to investment in mineral extraction: Ricardian rents to resources with different economic qualities and monopoly rents. An estimate of the relative importance of these sources in the Canadian nickel industry over the period 1961-74 is made and it is found that Ricardian rents and, for one firm, monopoly rents, were important.     

An Assessment of U.S. Stream Compensatory Mitigation Policy: Necessary Changes to Protect Ecosystem Functions and Services

Compensatory mitigation of impacted streams and wetlands has increased over the past two decades, with the associated industry spending over US$2.9 billion in aquatic restoration annually. Despite these expenditures, evaluations by the National Research Council and U.S. Government Accountability Office have provided evidence that compensatory mitigation practices are failing to protect aquatic resource functions and services, and vague federal policy and inadequate evaluation of compensatory mitigation projects are to blame. To address these weaknesses, an update to federal regulations on compensatory mitigation was released in 2008. Additionally, the 2012 Reissuance of Nationwide Permits, some of which affects compensatory stream mitigation, was recently published. Current policy, as reflected in these documents, still uses nonspecific language to direct compensatory stream mitigation leaving most implementation decisions to the local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district. The majority of federal mitigation policy has focused on wetland compensation, with other aquatic resources receiving less attention (e.g., streams). In this article, weaknesses of current policy are discussed, as are suggested policy changes to minimize the loss of stream ecosystem functions and services. Compensatory mitigation policy should clearly define key terms, incorporate adaptive management procedures, and provide guidelines for determining mitigation costs and compensation ratio requirements.     

Mineral resources appraisal and policy: Controversies,issues and the future

Political-economic events of the 1970s brought mineral resource appraisal to the focus of national policy. Estimates of and methodologies for mineral resources appraisal were scrutinized, revealing deficiencies in method and data and fostering considerable debate about the credibility of estimates and about preferred methodology. Since credibility can be increased through the acquisition of additional geoscience information, questions regarding methodology have more than one formulation and therefore more than one correct solution, depending upon the expected value of additional information and the conditional losses of relevant policy options. When existing information is meagre and the expected value of information is high, the optimum decision may be to defer all policy options until after the acquisition and analysis of- additional information. Decision theory offers an analytical framework that is sufficiently generalized to provide answers for highly varied circumstances of geoscience and resource information and policy issues. Our ability to perform any such analysis is limited by inaccuracies in both geologists' estimates of undiscovered mineral resources, and in economists' calculations of conditional losses of policy options for each of the relevant states of mineral resources.     

Regional development benefits of mineral projects

This paper discusses the development impact of mining and mineral processing on the regions in which they are located. The discussion is organized so as to be of relevance for policy formulation in resource-rich developing countries which consider the exploitation of their mineral wealth. The hypothesis is that mining technology, interpreted in a broad sense, has undergone a profound change since 1900. In consequence, experiences of mineralbased regional development in the industrialized countries around the turn of the century are of little relevance to the Third World in the 1980s. Contemporary mineral ventures have very weak regional development repercussions in the absence of forceful policies specifically directed towards the regional development goal.     

加拿大环境产业发展对我国的启示

环境产业具有良好的生态效益和经济效益。发展环境产业是治理环境污染、应对生态危机的治本之策、长远之计。加拿大环境产业已成为支撑本国经济社会发展的支柱产业,本文分析了加拿大政府、企业和科研机构在环境产业发展中相互合作发挥的重要作用,对我国环境产业的改革和发展具有一定的启示。     

THE WESTERN WATER COMMISSION: WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RECEIVES THE AVI'ENTION OF A NEW GENERATION1

ABSTRACT: Our nation periodically reviews national water policy and considers its directions for the future. The most recent examination was directed at the western United States and the role of the federal agencies in meeting its needs. The West is no longer the frontier, but rather contains vibrant cities and booming centers of international trade, as well as tourism, mineral, and oil and gas development, agricultural, and other development. In this changing environment, federal water policies need to consider the long term sustainability of the West, provide justice to Indian tribes, protect the rivers and ecosystems on which natural systems depend, balance the needs of newcomers with those of agricultural users and communities, and meet a myriad of other demands. The Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission has just concluded its review of these issues and issued its report. Key among the recommendations is the need to coordinate federal agencies at the basin and watershed level and make government more responsive to local needs, but within a framework that includes national mandates. The Commission's recommendations are presented here, along with some of the issues that surrounded the operations of the Commission.     

Resource diplomacy in a Canadian perspective

Concern for the supply of resources—renewable and nonrenewable—has been evident during the 1970s. All countries seek to increase the economic and social returns from the exploration, processing and distribution of minerals so as to improve the quality of life of their people. Proper resource management is imperative because of the interdependence of the mineral sector with other leading sectors of the economy and also because of the importance of minerals in the web of international economics. This paper emphasises the significance of recent international events as they affect the mineral industry and the Canadian position in the ever changing world of resource diplomacy.     

US strategic minerals: Policy options

The USA is becoming increasingly dependent on key strategic metals (such as chrome, cobalt, manganese and platinum-group metals) from politically unstable regions of the world. This dependence is the result of an inconsistent and fragmented US non-fuel minerals policy. Neglect of the US minerals industry has led to a decline in US mineral production and processing capabilities. Options for a comprehensive US non-fuel minerals policy include increased domestic production; increased substitution and recycling; a domestic stockpiling programme; and diversification of, and ensured access to, foreign sources of supply. These four options are examined and recommendations are made for increased mineral surveys of public lands, a regulatory review, domestic production of strategic minerals, tax incentives, conservation, stockpiling, and a foreign policy that will ensure security of supply.