The system is at odds with the province’s status as a paragon of regulatory excellence, the conference heard on Jan. 24 during a panel moderated by Anita Balakrishnan of The Logic.
“Bad actors tarnish our industry’s reputation when their actions aren’t constrained by law,” activist Nikki Scuse, co-chair of the non-governmental organization BC Mining Law Reform Network and director of the Northern Confluence Initiative, said.
The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) hosted the session for the first time seeking to provide a space for opposing viewpoints to be confronted and debated. The conference attracted over 6,200 attendees over four days.
Scuse pointed out the contradiction between B.C.’s adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in 2019 with the Mineral Tenure Act — the “archaic” 19th-century law that regulates claimstaking.
She highlighted the September Supreme Court ruling…


