Check out yesterday’s editorial in the Vancouver Sun: “Lift the regulatory burden on B.C.’s mining industry”.

The Sun editorial is perhaps a little milder in tone than Michael Smyth of the Province reviewing B.C.'s "Byzantine" system (see http://www.canada.com/news/green+assessments+aren+better+than/2471772/story.html) or the Black Press's Tom Fletcher's evaluation of "job-killing nonsense" (see http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/82685917.html).
 
So...what is getting B.C.'s media fired up? After all, B.C. is a leader in accoutrements for the mineral exploration sector such as flow-through shares (three-year extension announced after the editorial was drafted by the way, bringing our industry closer in line with Hollywood North credits), public geoscience funding, environmental stewardship, reducing the number of regulations affecting industry, and low corporate tax rates. (These are all appreciated at AME BC, by the way).
 
The gist is that for the B.C. advantage to work and create jobs in all regions of the province, the federal and environmental permitting and environmental assessment processes need to function better. Call it one-project-one-process or streamlining, or to sound equally impressive in either of the country's official languages, choose a term like harmonization or devolution. Call it reducing the number of "Canada-sized" 3-inch three-ring binders being created across the country - have you seen the cost of those by the way? At $15 a binder and $20-40 an hour to stuff said binder, surely bureaucrats in Victoria and Ottawa shouldn't be doing exactly the same thing.
 
At any rate, the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision regarding Red Chris shows that the process needs to work better to avoid duplication of efforts.
 
Ending duplication, whether it is through Ottawa delegating part of the EA process to B.C., or through another mechanism (requiring special legislation or not), is needed to bring certainty for the mineral exploration and mining sector, and for jobs, in this province. The provincial government agrees; Ottawa agrees; let's get 'er done!