Policy & Positions Manual
Provincial Issues - Energy and Mines
Investing the Capital Required to Capitalize on BC's Mineral Resources (2009)
BC’s mineral resources have the potential to provide a strong economic foundation for the province and make BC a leading global supplier of minerals. This can only be achieved if BC creates the infrastructure to attract investment in this sector.
Two organizations working towards these goals are the BC Geological Survey (BCGS) and Geoscience BC (GBC). Each has different mandates but complementary goals.
BCGS is responsible for producing and housing public geological and geoscientific information about mineral resources and mineral potential in the province. Their core staff is made of professional geoscientists who carry out the systematic inventory and assessment of the varied and complex geology of BC. BCGS functions as a highly technical institution to answer to the continuing information needs of government, business and the general public. The inventory of information is used to attract industry investment, to assist government’s stewardship of its rich mineral resource endowment and to help manage and protect Crown lands. BCGS’ 2009 budget has been substantially reduced from 2008.
GBC‘s mandate is to encourage mineral and petroleum exploration investment in BC through the delivery of applied geosciences. It applies new data, new ideas and new technologies, and compiles and reprocesses existing data and applications of existing technologies in new areas. Geoscience BC seeks collaborative and partnership projects that come with supporting funding. GBC has only one more year of operating funds.
If BC wants to realize the opportunity of our rich mineral resources it needs to invest in the infrastructure that makes this possible.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the Provincial Government:
- reinstate BCGS’s annual funding to at least the $5 million level, plus additional funds to cover expensive field costs and the costs to attract expertise in today’s competitive market; and
- reinvest another $20 million in Geoscience BC with the mandate, as before, to leverage these funds with funds from industry and other government agencies.
