When Peter Griesbach discovered someone had chopped down trees at his weekend house to make crude posts staking out a mining claim, he assumed he could rid his land of the uninvited prospector relatively quickly. He was wrong.
Indeed, seven years later Griesbach is still campaigning to change the provincial law that allows anyone who pays the equivalent of US$26.50 to dig for pretty much any mineral on private property in much of rural Ontario.
Historically high mineral prices have set off a new wave of prospecting in Canada and with it new battles over mineral laws, some of which date to the 19th century. Under the so-called free entry system, effective in much of Ontario, prospectors and miners have had relatively unfettered access to private land in many areas.
Now, after decades of promises to modify the law from successive governments, Griesbach and other landowners may finally find some measure of relief.
After a highly publicized clash between an Indian tribe and a mining company this year, which led to the jailing of a native leader, the Ontario government said it would alter the law by December. But change is so controversial that even the broad details of any modification will not be worked out for some time.
British Columbia has had a rise in conflicts between landowners and prospectors, too, as it experiences a similar mining boom despite recent legal reforms in that province that have made it harder to invade private land.
The controversy has been most intense in Ontario, where it has also led to increased divisions along economic, regional and class lines.
Many owners of homes and “cottages,” as well as farmers and ranchers in southeastern Ontario, where Griesbach has his cottage, are not keen to have their trees chopped down, land dynamited and soil turned over.
But in the vast and relatively unpopulated northern part of the province, many residents see increased mining as one of the few ways to avoid economic ruin from the collapse of the pulp and paper industry there. Anything with the potential to curb mining’s expansion will meet with significant opposition in that region.
Still, even some mining companies have started to feel a bit embarrassed by the controversy.
“There’s a recognition from our members that private property owners deserve more rights than exist under the current act,” said Chris Hodgson, president of the Ontario Mining Association, which represents large mining companies. “I have a lot of empathy for a cottage owner that’s discovered someone staking their property.”
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