Ontario to limit applications for IMEP funding

Ontario plans to limit applications to its Ontario Mineral Exploration Program (OMEP), in the wake of the federal government’s new Canadian Exploration Incentives Program (CEIP).

The province’s ministry of northern development and mines says it will limit applications to the OMEP program to those involving work to be carried out prior to the January 1, 1989 introduction of the CEIP program.

The change is being made, the ministry says, because the federal program will provide the same type of exploration incentives as does OMEP.

The federal program will provide grants of up to 30% of eligible exploration expenditures on projects qualifying for flow-through tax incentives. OMEP provides up to 25% for similar costs.

According to John Gammon, director of the mineral development and lands branch of the Ontario mines ministry, all commitments made under OMEP to currently designated programs, including those applications on hand or postmarked before July 4, 1988, will be honored.

“New applications received from July 4 onward will only be considered if they involve work to be carried out prior to Dec 31 this year,” Gammon said.

“This is not at all the death of OMEP,” Gammon assured The Northern Miner, “but simply a moratorium on new applications.”

In fact the province will spend about $35 million over the next three years to honor current OMEP commitments and those made between now and Dec 31, 1988.

Gammon said meantime the ministry plans to consult with the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the newly- formed Ontario Mineral Exploration Federation and other interested groups to assess the impact of CEIP and determine whether other ministry initiatives might be required for mineral exploration support.