Minister Streicker.
As we are days away from the spring sitting of the Yukon Legislature, Yukoners Concerned would like to renew its call for the tabling of new minerals legislation during this session. It has always been our understanding that 2025 would be the year that this long-required and long-awaited legislation would be presented.
With its promise to address compliance, monitoring, and enforcement with penalties and deterrence, public accountability and transparency, collaboration between government and First Nation governments, its emphasis on land use planning and more realistic financial securities and royalties - to cite but a few of the proposed changes - this legislation is long overdue.
This disaster at Victoria Gold, with its ramifications for the environment, Na-Cho Nyäk Dun and the Yukon at large, the repeated failures of mining operations that leave the Yukon government to clean up and tax-payers to absorb the cost, the imperative to have new and effective legislation in place before permitting new mines, and the fact that Yukoners must go to the polls to elect a new government this year, all demand that this legislation be presented this spring.
Concerning the latter point, we know that the Yukon Party was not in favour of initiating the new minerals strategy and quite possibly would not support this legislation.
Given the uncertainty of electoral outcomes, the necessity to ensure that new minerals legislation is enacted before an election and, perhaps, a desire to cement a legacy of finally bringing Yukon's mining laws into the 21st century ought to provide an impetus to present this legislation this spring. We urge the Liberal government to complete the process of renewal that it started and table the legislation.
Thank you.
Donald J Roberts
Chair
Yukoners Concerned
