‘It will surprise most people’: Mining association CEO says the industry benefits B.C.’s urban communities
Mines might be distant from Metro Vancouver, but 22% of the jobs they support are located in cities, which also stand to benefit from boom.
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B.C.’s 18 existing mines are spread out over the province’s rural regions, but in 2024, they also contributed $3.5 billion to the urban economies of Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island, according to estimates in a new economic analysis.
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The Mining Association of B.C. published the analysis Tuesday and it’s CEO, Michael Goehring, highlighted the results as a reminder for a business audience at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade that benefits of the industry’s expansion will land in B.C.’s cities too.
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“I think the mining sector is very distant to most people living in urban British Columbia,” Goehring said.
However, the association’s analysis found that 22 per cent of the jobs that B.C.’s mines support — some 16,000 positions — are in Metro Vancouver or Vancouver Island.
“It’s important that British Columbians, folks who live in Metro Vancouver, understand and know that,” Goehring added.
And Goehring emphasized the region would also benefit proportionally from an imminent boom in the industry, which is a message he wanted to deliver at the same time the overall economy has been struggling.
“One new mine in the province will generate, I think, $1.6 billion in GDP in the Lower Mainland and several thousand jobs,” Goehring added. “I think it will surprise most people.”
Goehring also used his seventh annual address to the business group to keep pressure on the province to improve on the steps it has taken to streamline the review and permitting of new mines in B.C., and deal with the uncertainty brought about by legal challenges being made under the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
Tuesday’s event occurred the day after news broke that U.S. Indigenous groups in Washington state and Alaska will cite DRIPA in their cross-border challenges of projects in this province, including one of those mine approvals in the far northwest, Skeena Resources’ Eskay Creek mine revitalization.
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This week, Conservative Indigenous Relations critic Scott McInnis characterized the U.S. Indigenous groups’ attempt to use DRIPA in their challenges as a “sovereignty crisis,” that Premier David Eby and Attorney-General Niki Sharma need to resolve before more such cases pile up.
Goehring didn’t have specific advice on options to do that, but “the uncertainty is unsettling, it’s a significant concern, particularly if you are early on the development curve.”
Goehring added that one thing that could help is if government devoted more resources to fund capacity building for First Nations to take part in the review and permitting of resource projects to help build trust with communities around economic reconciliation.
“I don’t think anybody disagrees with the concept of reconciliation. It’s not about that. It’s about how it’s being done,” Goehring said.
He added that B.C.’s major mining and exploration companies will continue to work with First Nations that they have been partners with “for decades” before DRIPA.
The uncertainty, however, is a factor for the future if B.C. and Canada want to advance mining as a strategic imperative for economic sovereignty.
“We’re a small open economy depending on global trade for our sector,” Goehring said. “We sell our commodities globally, and people can take their money to where they get the best return or where there is certainty and predictability.”
With files from Alec Lazenby
