Officials this week got the opinions and suggestions they were seeking at the public consultation session on the development of a provincial Minerals Strategy held in Stephenville
Only six people showed up. Of the six, just one was from outside the industry and all others were prospectors and explorers who weren’t shy about sharing not only their opinions, but also what they felt were solutions to the problems with the industry.
Many government consultations take place, and for the larger part, there are fingers pointed about what’s wrong with the system. Often it stops there and answers to alleviate the problems are not presented.
This time around it was different; there were strong suggestions on what to do — some costly and others that might even save money.
In one case, it was suggested a resource centre for prospecting and mineral exploration be set up on the west coast. While that would be great, the costs involved would likely be tremendous. A further suggested solution was to have small resource centres set up in either libraries or at campuses of the College of the North Atlantic, of which there are 17 across the island.
That would certainly help in reaching out to many more people in rural areas and lessen the burden of them having to make their way to one centre for the whole west coast.
The existing problem is the necessary resources are only located in St. John’s.
Another suggestion is that courses in prospecting be offered in more places. Another idea is there should be one-stop shopping when it comes to applying for permits because sometimes there are multiple departments that have to be applied to when undertaking a project and the current process requires repeating the same information.
Those conducting the consultation were impressed by the positive attitude brought forward and felt some of the potential solutions suggested will be looked at ... and likely acted upon.
It will be interesting to see down the road if any of these suggestions do indeed come into effect as a result of these people speaking out. Constructive criticism can make a difference.
