'Pitifully low': mining watchdog wants investigation of mining royalties.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan
• Position: MINING

Ontario's mining royalties are "pitifully low" said MiningWatch Canada in an open letter to Ontario's auditor general.

The organization has asked Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk to exercise her office's "value-for-money" mandate to evaluate the province's review of its Mineral Development Strategy.

"Pitifully low mining royalties, very low corporate taxes, direct and indirect subsidies, give-away prices on electricity, unaccounted social and environmental costs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in mine site clean-up costs are all major concerns," wrote Ugo Lapointe, MiningWatch Canada's program co-ordinator, in his open letter to Lysyk.

Lapointe said mining companies in Ontario have generated more than $93.3 billion in gross revenues over the last 10 years, but the province has only received 1.5 per cent of that amount in royalties.

"We could learn from some of the First Nations, are very good negotiators with mining companies."

Lapointe said the province should look into improving its regional redistribution of mining royalties so mining jurisdictions, like Sudbury, can better benefit from any royalties.

"When the mines go away what's left be hind?" he asked.

MiningWatch Canada also asked the province's auditor general to investigate the potential costs of remediating Ontario's abandoned mine sites.

"Ontario does not have any official numbers out there," Lapointe said.

When Quebec audited its mining industry in 2009, that province's auditor general determined it would cost about $1.2 billion to clean up around 80 mine sites.

Ontario has as many as three times more past producing sites that need remediation.

"I think it's fair to say the cost in Ontario would probably be $2 billion or $3 billion," Lapointe said.

He added the Mount Polley mine disaster in British Columbia, in which a breach of the mine's tailings pond released 4.5 million cubic metres of slurry into a lake, raises questions about the safety of tailings management...