COMMENTARY — Harcourt was a mixed blessing

Word of Michael Harcourt’s resignation as premier of British Columbia has generated some mixed feelings within the province’s mining community.

It was Harcourt’s New Democratic Party (NDP) government that killed Windy Craggy. Although the decision came from a political party notorious for its alliance with environmental pressure groups, it nevertheless came as a shock — after all, Harcourt had promised to be different; he had promised consultation and consensus. In the wake of the decision, it was clear that he delivered neither to mining.

The process known as CORE (Commission on Resources and Environment), which established province-wide land-use designations by committee, left resource-based industries such as mining out in the cold. The government’s policy of essentially doubling the province’s parkland, without consideration for the mineral riches that might lie beneath the surface of those protected areas, was reckless and economically unsound. In spite of the nation’s worsening debt and the province’s record increases in borrowing, the NDP embarked on what amounted to a land alienation exercise that threatened resource communities and effectively eliminated the economic potential of enormous tracts of land.

And yet, British Columbia’s mining sector could have suffered a worse fate.

While Premier Harcourt has his share of detractors, it must be acknowleged, in all fairness, that he had to face some dangerous idealogues within his cabinet and caucus. Indeed, had it not been for his “moderating voice,” the government’s policies would likely have been even more destructive to the resource sector.

For all of his shortcomings, Michael Harcourt is liked. In the aftermath of the Windy Craggy decision he seemed to make an effort to appease the mining sector. He expressed a willingness to work with industry, government and labor to find ways to build mining here at home, in particular by establishing the “Premier’s Forum on Mining.” And while the results were modest — we saw an $18-million package for mining unveiled in the 1994-95 provincial budget, which at least marked the first time in years that the mining industry was not hit with some new tax or levy — his intentions seemed genuine.

— From “Mining Quarterly,” a publication of the Mining Association of British Columbia.