Today I had the distinct honour of providing opening remarks for the Social Innovation in Mineral Exploration Panel at the Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) 2019 Roundup conference in Vancouver.

I took the opportunity to outline a BC Green vision for innovation in the mining sector. Below I reproduce the text of my speaking notes. I’ll post a video of my presentation if I can find one online. I explored the issue of social innovation more thoroughly during my oral presentation.

Text of Opening Remarks

Thank you very much for the kind introduction and for inviting me to speak with you all today.

I must admit that I am very pleased to have the opportunity to make remarks before the panel on innovation and mining. There are few conversations that I think are more interesting in our province right now than how our traditional resource sectors can harness technology and innovation and develop new economic opportunities.

Before I get to that though, I should also let you know that mining is actually near and dear to my heart. As many will know, I am a faculty member on leave from the School of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria — a climate/paleoclimate scientist surrounded by geologists!

I’ve also had a long standing interest in mining stock investing (which, sadly, I’ve had to take a break from since getting elected).

But back to what I am here today to talk to you all about – the opportunity we have to harness innovation in our natural resource sectors – and specifically mining – to build low carbon economic opportunities for communities across our province.

I truly believe that mining is a bedrock industry that sustained communities across our province for many decades. Pun intended.

In my almost 6 years as an MLA I have had the opportunity to visit a number of different mining operations across our province and I’ve seen first hand just how important these projects are to the communities around them.

From the large Teck metallurgical coal mines in the Elk Valley to the Small Eagle graphite play near Nelson; from the Imperial Metals Mt. Polly Mine to Teck’s Highland Valley Copper, the pride that employees and employers take in BC’s rich mining history is evident to me.

With over 30,000 workers directly employed by the sector, and an estimated $9.9 billion contributed to BC’s economy, mining’s importance to our economy today is undisputed.

What I think is less known, but perhaps is even more important, is just how much our mining industry has to contribute to the creation of a low carbon economy.

We are at the start of a major economic shift – one that is taking place right across the world.

Slowly but surely, jurisdictions are recognizing that sustainable economic prosperity must go hand in hand with reducing our carbon pollution.

It’s critical that this isn’t approached as an environmental mission – but as an opportunity to create new, sustainable economic opportunities right across our province even as we reduce our climate pollution.

To seize this opportunity we must be willing to embrace innovation – both in terms of the technologies we use to make our operations more efficient, and economically viable, and in terms of the transition to low carbon technologies.

Let’s look at technology first.

Bryan Cox, the President and CEO of he Mining Association of BC put it very articulately in the Price Waterhouse Cooper 2017 industry update when he said:

“The way I see it, mining is a tech industry and when both sectors grow, the entire province benefits.”

In my opinion, this is exactly the way to view the opportunity technology and innovation provides the resource sector. It is not as some separate force working from the outside – it must be ingrained in what we do.

I think there is a tendency to think of the tech sector as a “south-west” BC industry – one with little direct benefit to other regions of the province.

Certainly, it’s true that there has been a significant expansion in “tech industry” in Vancouver and Victoria. But if you ask anyone involved in this industry, they will tell you exactly what Mr. Cox so succinctly put.

We must view all our industries – especially our long standing resource industries as “tech industries”.

So what does this look like in practice? Let’s talk about one of my favourite companies: MineSense.

The future of economic prosperity in BC lies in harnessing our innate potential for innovation and bringing new, more efficient technologies to bear in the resource sector.

MineSense’s real-time, sensor-based ore sorting technologies embody BC innovation at its finest and provide a perfect example of what’s needed for BC to seize new opportunities from innovation.

BC will never compete in digging dirt out of the ground with jurisdictions that don’t internalize the same social and environmental externalities that we value.

We will excel through being smarter, more efficient, & cleaner.

This means that we not only export the dirt, but we also export the knowledge, technology, and value-added products associated with resource extraction.

And that’s where companies like Minesense come in.

But there is also a second critical opportunity to harness innovation in the mining sector – and that is by embracing the goals set out in Clean BC – British Columbia’s economic strategy to address climate change.

I entered politics back in 2013 to ensure that BC’s strategy to address climate change was put back on track. This wasn’t about simply putting in place new environmental policies.

CleanBC should not be viewed only as a climate plan – it’s an economic vision focused on innovation & opportunities. And B.C. has all the strategic advantages needed to seize these low-carbon economic opportunities.

By tackling the challenges presented by climate change, with carefully designed policies, B.C.’s economy can grow in new ways. CleanBC offers a pathway for B.C. to be on the cutting edge of the low-carbon economy.

For the mining sector I believe that there are two main areas of opportunity: First by embracing the electrification of our mining operations and shifting to lower pollution fuels, and second, by ensuring BC mines – and the minerals and metals we mine for – are directly linked to the growing demand for clean technologies.

The business case for electrification is becoming ever more convincing – both as a driver of cost reduction and efficiency, as well as ensuring companies have the social license to operate.

Seizing the opportunities of electrification and a fuel shift will require close coordination between industry and government. Clean BC starts this process with new incentive programs and policy changes that support a transition.

For example, these programs include a new heavy-duty vehicle incentive program that will provide funding to promote the purchase of energy efficient equipment for large transport trucks.

Our goal is to have the cleanest industry in the world – one that leverages our abundant renewable electricity in their industrial operations.

These changes won’t happen overnight – and no one seriously would expect them to. But we must be committed to embracing new innovations when they come along. And government must do its part to ensure that companies who are serious about electrification have access to the reliable electricity they will count on.

There is one other area where I believe government and industry must work together to harness the power of innovation and technology.

We must ensure that the standards that regulate our mining industry are kept up to date, and that in addition to the economic benefits mining provides our province, its social and environmental impacts are being accounted for.

The Mt. Polley tailings pond breach hurt public confidence in government and industry’s ability to adequately protect the natural environment during mining operations. Public trust and confidence is a critical component of a successful mining industry.

The way to build public trust is clear – we must ensure that our operations leverage the best available technology and the best available practices. Innovation cannot be a buzz-word we use – and this is something government is particularly guilty of. Innovation is more than just the latest technology. It is a way of operating where we are committed to evidence based decision-making and solving problems before they arise.

Once again, this is something the government and industry must work together on.

So how do we put this altogether? How do we embody a way of operating that is committed to innovation?

For me, there has been one piece in particular that has been missing from most governments approaches when it comes to harnessing innovation and really developing a new economic road map for our province.

What’s missing has been “vision”.

We won’t be able to harness the true economic potential of innovation by accident.

We won’t be able to meet our climate targets and develop new economic opportunities by accident.

We must know what future we want to build and drive towards.

This is what the BC Greens started with our initial innovation policies.

The first piece was the Emerging Economy Task Force.

We proposed the Emerging Economy Task Force to enable government to adapt and respond to changes on the horizon. We need to modernize government so that it is considerably more responsive to technological innovation.

The role of the Emerging Economy Task Force is to look to the future, identify emerging trends and advise government on how to maintain our competitiveness and achieve prosperity amidst these changes.

The second item from our platform that we integrated into our agreement with the NDP is the Innovation Commission (now Innovate BC) as well as the appointment of an Innovation Commissioner.

The innovation commissioner was proposed to be an advocate and ambassador on behalf of the B.C. technology sector in Ottawa and abroad, to enable B.C. companies to more easily tap into existing federal programs and build key strategic relationships.

By getting these two pieces in place, we have started to change the conversation about innovation policy in government.

We are now at an all-important next step.

In the coming months, the BC Greens want to have a deliberate conversation with stakeholders across British Columbia about innovation, and how government and industry can work together to build new economic opportunities.

We want to understand the barriers that you think need to be removed, and the opportunities you think we can seize.

With the budget in the Spring I expect to see Clean BC fully funded and start to roll out. This will provide a critical opportunity for a conversation about BC Hydro’s role in supporting the electrification of industry, and innovation in general.

The future I imagine is one where our natural resource sector is globally known as the cleanest and most innovative in the world.

I want to be a jurisdiction where companies try out cutting edge technologies to enhance the efficiency of our operations.

I want us to be ever more connected to the global supply chain for minerals needed to construct the solar panels and wind turbines we use to power our economy and the electric vehicles we use to navigate our roads.

I want to see the growth of B.C.’s technology sector as an asset that facilitates greater innovation through technology usage and partnerships with other economic sectors.

This is my vision. It’s not easy – but I think BC is up to the challenge.

Thank you for your time.

Today during Question Period I rose to ask both the Minister of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources and the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development what the greatest climate change-related risks and opportunities their ministry faces, and how they are prepared to deal with both.

With the upcoming release of the economic vision embodied in the clean growth strategy, it’s critical that every Minister is up to speed on how it will affect their Ministry.

As you will see from the exchange, I was not very impressed with the response I received from the Minister of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources. I felt that the response from the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development was quite good.

Below I reproduce the text and video of the exchange with the Ministers.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: In the span of just a few centuries, earth has transitioned from a past when climate affected the evolution of human societies to the present, in which humans are affecting the evolution of the climate system.

Today we are at a pivotal moment in human history. Our generation will be responsible for deciding the path we take and the future climate will take along with us. As elected officials, we’ll either be complicit in allowing climate change to despoil our world or we can lead the way and choose a different path.

Our provincial emissions have risen in four out of the last five years. Every minister has a responsibility to ensure that tackling this issue is within their mandate, as mitigating the impacts of climate change requires an all-of-government approach.

Accounting for 7.2 million tonnes annually, mining and upstream oil and gas production are the biggest contributors. My question to Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources is this. What are the greatest climate change–related risks and opportunities facing your ministry and how are you prepared to deal with them?

Answer

I appreciate that for the member this is a very, very important issue that he’s very passionate about and the work that he’s done with this government to address climate change and our climate action plan.

For this ministry, in particular, we have been looking at what we can be doing as a new government to reduce our impact on climate change. The list is quite long. But I know that question period is the opposition’s time, so I won’t try to list everything. I’ll give the member a few examples of some of the things that we’re doing.

A couple of weeks ago I was at UBC talking with architect students about our new program called the better buildings B.C. program, where we’re looking for innovative ideas in terms of how we can reduce our emissions in our buildings throughout the province.

But the member brought up, specifically, mining and oil and gas. One of the things that this government did was we eliminated PST on electricity for businesses. That includes the mining sector. That includes the oil and gas sector. If they can electrify and move away from oil and gas — diesel, for example — to generate the power that they need to do their operations, we’re reducing our greenhouse gas emissions quite significantly. Those are the types of opportunities that we’re looking at.

As the member will note, I also just introduced legislation to reduce our methane emissions as well. There’s lots that we are doing, and I look forward to being able to brief the member fully at another time

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: I must say, given the scale of the challenge as well as the scale of the opportunity, going and meeting a few people to discuss some ideas is hardly taking advantage of this opportunity and meeting the challenge. I remain quite disappointed in that response, so let me try again.

The B.C. fires of the past two summers were no surprise to the climate science community. Back in 2004, my colleagues and I published a paper in Geophysical Research Letters, pointing out that we could already detect and attribute increasing areas burnt in Canadian forest fires to human activity and, in particular, global warming.

According to the B.C. Wildfire Service, this year was the worst on record. Over 1.35 million hectares were consumed by forest fires. The fires burned homes, endangered lives and released hundreds of megatonnes of CO₂. What’s happening in California is no surprise to the climate science community, yet it appears to be a surprise to politicians du jour.

We know that global warming will lead to an increased likelihood of summer drought. This, in turn, will lead to more extensive wildfires. We know that precipitation extremes will increase and that flooding events will be on the rise. This threatens human health, ecosystems and the economy.

While the members opposite are concerned about their survival as a political entity, I’m sitting here asking the minister about the political survival of all of our collective species. To the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, what are the greatest climate change-related risks and opportunities facing your ministry, and how are you prepared to deal with both?

Answer

Hon. D. Donaldson: As my colleague mentioned, climate change is a considerable risk for our province and planet, and we are committed to tackling it. The member and the Leader of the Third Party asks — and I appreciate — the question about opportunities and risks.

The risks are in forest systems and ecosystem resilience. Ensuring that into the future, we have forest ecosystems that are resilient to and can adapt to the climate change that we are seeing.

We are seeing it, certainly, in the forest fire situation. It’s had an impact there. Large forest fires that we saw in the past two seasons have had enormous impact on ecosystems. We’ve seen it even more recently in the level 4 drought conditions in the areas that I represent up in the northwest and unprecedented drought that has led to impacts on fisheries resources. You’ve seen the pictures of the riverbeds, extremely dry riverbeds — unprecedented.

We are working on mitigative measures. In June, we hosted the first wildfire and climate change conference. A couple of topics it focused on were creating resilient ecosystems to better adapt to climate change and mitigate wildfires and ensuring effective carbon management. Part of that is our forest carbon initiative. That’s a $290 million federal-provincial initiative that’s focusing on incremental reforestation and improving utilization of waste and reducing slash burning.

Finally, in regards to the question as far as opportunities, we also have long-term research trials, assisted migration and adaptation trials to identify seed sources most likely to best adapt to future climates. We’ve made important progress in 16 months, and we need to do more.

Today in the legislature I rose during Question Period to ask the Minister of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources why we are giving untold billions in subsidies to an LNG industry instead of investing in the infrastructure that would create long-term, sustainable jobs in our existing mining industry.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: This government has been touting an LNG industry investment decision that will create, at most, 950 long-term jobs, yet B.C.’s internationally regarded mining industry, an industry that literally built our province, already employs more than 16,600.

While LNG prices have been sagging, solar has become the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide, and photovoltaic cells need copper, molybdenum, silver and other metals that we produce in B.C. Batteries need lithium and graphite, the former of which has incredible potential at extraction when combined with geothermal energy production.

The B.C. Mining Association highlighted the opportunity that this presents in a 2017 report. We have the workforce, the resources and innovation necessary to make B.C. a global hub for solar technology materials, yet we choose to invest in emissions-intensive sunset industries, with comparatively few long-term jobs.

My question is to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources. Why are we giving untold billions in subsidies to an LNG industry instead of investing in the infrastructure that would create long-term, sustainable jobs in our existing mining industry?

Answer

Hon. M. Mungall: Thank you to the member for the question.

There is no doubt about it. Mining is a foundational economic sector in this province. It is critical to our overall economy. I’m so glad that the member sees the important value and that its future is involved in electric cars, like the one that the member drives, and is involved in renewable energy and all the potential that mining has in terms of our future and those opportunities.

I honestly can’t say why the B.C. Liberals chose not to do so much for this industry while they were in power. It was very unfortunate. Because of that 16 years of neglect, we have stepped in with our first order of business — to start the Mining Jobs Task Force — and we have done that. That task force includes representatives from First Nations, industry, labour, environmental organizations, local government and academia. They have come together. They are doing yeoman’s work to identify how we can ensure that British Columbia is one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the world for this foundational sector to our economy. I look forward to their report.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: We’ve got an incredible opportunity to define a new vision for industrial development in our province. But it will take careful planning and a commitment to our clean growth strategy. This requires government to become more proactive in signalling the type of investment it wants in our province.

In rural B.C., this starts with ensuring that we have in place the electrification infrastructure so that both existing and prospective mines have the ability to hook up to our provincial grid, providing opportunities to electrify their operations while contributing to the creation of the clean energy sector.

My question to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources is this: what tangible steps is her ministry taking to ensure that the province has the infrastructure in place to ensure that all future industrial development in our province can have access to the required electrification for their operations?

Answer

Hon. M. Mungall: Absolutely. I agree, exactly, with what the member was saying — how important mining is to our economy in this province, and the opportunity to electrify our industries so that they are producing less and less greenhouse emissions is a huge opportunity and exactly where we need to be going.

It’s one of the reasons that we included mining in cutting PST on electricity. The mining sector is not having to pay PST on their electricity, incentivizing them further to adopt electricity for their operations.

It’s very important as we look at the energy package as a whole that we have the capacity, as well as the energy generation, so that we can meet future demand.

Today in the legislature I took the opportunity during Question Period to ask the Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology about what his Ministry is doing to encourage integration between BC’s tech and mining sectors.

British Columbia is blessed with a wealth of natural resources, and many communities rely on these resources for their livelihoods. But British Columbia will never compete head to head in digging dirt out of the ground with other jurisdictions that don’t internalize the social and environmental externalities that are so important us to. We have to be smarter, more efficient and innovative. In doing so, we’re not only able to sell our resources, but we’re also able to sell the knowledge and value-added products that arise from them.

Rather than adopting a race-for-the-bottom approach to deregulation, we have an incredible opportunity here in British Columbia to integrate our tech sector and our extractive resource industries.

Below I reproduce the video and text of our exchange.

Video of Exchange

Question

A. Weaver: British Columbia is blessed with a wealth of natural resources, and many communities rely on these resources for their livelihoods. But British Columbia will never compete head to head in digging dirt out of the ground with other jurisdictions that don’t internalize the social and environmental externalities that are so important us to. We have to be smarter, more efficient and innovative. In doing so, we’re not only able to sell our resources, but we’re also able to sell the knowledge and value-added products that arise from them.

Rather than adopting a race-for-the-bottom approach to deregulation, we have an incredible opportunity here in British Columbia to integrate our tech sector and our extractive resource industries. B.C.-based companies like MineSense, a company that creates digital mining technology, exemplifies such innovation.

To the Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology. Partnering our resource industries with B.C. innovation is an easy choice with obvious returns. What is this minister doing to encourage these partnerships?

Answer

Hon. B. Ralston: I share the member’s optimism about the power of technological discovery and innovation to transform very traditional resource industries. And in fact, that’s what we’re doing by appointing the innovation commissioner and expanding the mandate of Innovate B.C. to support emerging technologies that will assist in transforming our resource industries.

MineSense is a very good example that illustrates the point, I think, extremely effectively. MineSense is a company which won an award as one of the world’s top-100 new clean-tech companies. What is does is it’s a technology which assists in sorting mining ore through a sensor system, which makes the process more efficient and therefore more profitable, but it also reduces the use of water, reagents and other aspects of the mining process, and it reduces CO2 emissions, therefore making the entire process more energy-efficient and, in effect, greener.

That’s the kind of transformation that’s coming about in the sector, and that’s what the innovation commissioner and the innovation commission are setting out to continue and to enhance, building future prosperity here in British Columbia.

Supplementary Question

A. Weaver: For far too long, government has ignored the potential for innovation within the resource sector. A race-for-the-bottom approach to resource extraction may benefit a few corporate elite, but it’s not in the best interest of communities across our province struggling to attract and retain well-paying, long-term jobs.

It’s not our raw resources that can be profitable in the global markets; it’s our innovation too. Rimex, for example, is a B.C-based company that designs and manufactures innovative, cutting-edge industrial tires. Their products are efficient and reduce risk, and they’re also a prime example of B.C. innovation that’s gone global. The manufacturing base and corporate headquarters for Rimex are both located in the Lower Mainland, and there are over 200 Rimex employees in British Columbia.

My question to the Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology is this: what is the minister doing to foster the growth of B.C. mining sector innovation in this global marketplace?

Answer

Hon. B. Ralston: Again, I thank the member for the question. The government, the Minister of Energy and Mines, has appointed a mining task force, and those issues that the member raises are precisely some of the issues that that task force will raise — how to integrate British Columbia’s leading innovation and technology sector with the traditional resource industries in order to make sure that they can compete globally.

Another example of a B.C. company that is transforming the mining sector is LlamaZOO, which by using data analytics and visualization technology, enables those proposing a mine to create a digital double of the mine and to plan the extraction of the ore in a more efficient way. That technology has attracted wide interest in the mining sector, and that company is, understandably, doing very well.

That’s just one example of what innovation and the support that’s given to it by the government of British Columbia will do to transform the mining sector and enable it to continue to be a world-leading sector here in British Columbia.

Yesterday the BC Government announced that it had decided not to issue an environmental assessment certificate to the KGHM Ajax Mining Project. This is a welcome decision in light of the ongoing controversy that had emerged over the project.

I have previously toured the proposed site of the Ajax mine twice.  The first time was with representatives of KGHM. The second time was with citizens who were concerned about the potential detrimental impacts of an open-pit mine so close to the city. Our two BC Greem candidates (pictured above) during the last provincial election (Dan Hines and Donovan Cavers) were outspoken opponents of the project. Donovan serves as a Councillor on the Kamloops City Council which has voted twice to oppose the mine.

Below I reproduce our press release that followed the government’s announcement.

Media Release

B.C. Green Caucus respond to Ajax mine decision
For immediate release
December 14, 2017

VICTORIA, B.C. – Today the B.C. Green Caucus responded to the news that the B.C. Government decided not to issue an environmental assessment certificate to the KGHM Ajax Mining Project.

“We are happy that government is following the recommendation of the EAO on this project,” said Sonia Furstenau, MLA for Cowichan Valley. “The consensus in the community was clear. City council has voted twice to oppose the mine. Given the magnitude of the adverse effects and the EAO’s recommendation not to issue a certificate, it would have been shocking for government to approve this project.”

“The EAO identified significant and cumulative adverse effects from this project, including on human health in the nearby communities, and on Indigenous heritage,” said Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

“First Nations and the local community have been very engaged throughout this process, bringing many of the concerns to light. This was the only sound decision that government could have made based on the evidence provided,” said Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North & the Islands.

-30-

Media contact
Sarah Miller, Acting Press Secretary
+1 778-650-0597 | sarah.miller@leg.bc.ca