Stop backing destructive gold mining

I am writing as a member of Sustainable Northern Nova Scotia, a diverse group of citizens who have come together to find alternative economic solutions to the destructive practices of gold mining.

When over 6,500 citizens in one part of Nova Scotia and over 1,000 citizens in another agree there are far better ways than gold mining to improve our rural economies, and yet the director of the mining & geosciences division in the government calls those seeking protection of Archibald Lake from mining impacts “anti-development” and “obstructionist” (CBC News, Michael Gorman, June 22), there is something really wrong.

Unfortunately, our provincial governments have believed the extractives industry best serves the long-term development of our economy.

Boom and bust: we know that will end with environmental destruction, abandoned mines and forgotten communities. Nova Scotia is littered with them. But somehow, in spite of a cost of $48 million to clean up just one legacy site, our government continues to believe more gold mining will bring economic benefit.

The questions they ignore are how that benefit is calculated and who really gets it.

Nova Scotia's one-per-cent royalty is ranked among the lowest in the world. Mining jobs last only five to seven years, with the highest pay going to those from away or to those already with jobs.

Complicated formulas enable the mine at Moose River, for example, to pay no corporate taxes between 2017 and 2020 on the millions of dollars generated for their shareholders. For gold mines, no lasting value remains and no profits return to the communities that host them. Rather, they're left with environmental destruction, including abandoned mine sites, toxic waste, and contaminated watersheds.

Millions in taxpayer subsidies are the hidden realities of what St Barbara (current owners of the Moose River Mine) touts as “mining in the First World,” but with only “Third World” benefits because it is we, the taxpayers, who pay — for destruction of public roads (and rebuilding them: $2 million for 17.5 km), for electricity and fuel subsidies, for land expropriation, and for increased use of health services due to workers' health needs, accidents, pollution and aggravated illnesses.

What else do we lose? Communities, land (proposed expansion of the tailings facility is three times the size of Point Pleasant Park), safe drinking water, wildlife, clean air, all while increasing greenhouse gases.

As Silver Donald Cameron said: “We count the destruction of our life-support systems as ‘wealth creation'.”

Would you invest in a company that has 32 provincial environmental charges, four federal environmental charges and a citizen lawsuit related to a violent eviction from a public meeting?

What could we gain if the government changes the focus from investment in the mining industry to investment in building local prosperity? Many studies document that, because of the “multiplier effects,” every dollar spent on a locally owned business creates two to four times more jobs and other economic benefits than a dollar spent in a non-locallyowned business.

With externally-owned corporations, the wealth quickly leaves town! According to two Harvard economists who studied 90 “developing countries” exporting minerals between 1970 and 1990, the higher the dependence on resource exports, the lower per capita local growth. The wealth simply left the area.

Ultimately, true economic investment builds the local infrastructure and economy. It enhances what humanity needs to survive in that area: clean air, water, food and energy. Investments in the production of local commodities such as maple syrup, blueberries, small-scale agriculture, local food and other product innovation, bottom-up local initiatives/entrepreneurs, apprenticeship programs, fishing and selective forestry, and so forth, keep the money circulating within rural areas. Jobs and tax revenue will flow and increase. That's what Nova Scotians want. Why have our provincial governments favoured outside extractive corporations?