PDAC seeks gov’t action on Toronto regional office

The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) is expressing concern over the potential deterioration of services provided by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines to the Toronto-based explora tion and mining community, in the context of the planned relocation in 1990 of the ministry to Sudbury.

Queen’s Park made the relocation announcement in 1986, with the assurance a Toronto regional office would be in place prior to relocation. The PDAC is concerned there is less than two years left to have the regional office set up and functioning.

“The Ontario government must direct immediate attention to this most significant matter, in order that the Toronto office is established prior to relocation in 1990,” writes the PDAC in a brief submitted, on behalf of itself and three other organizations, to the minister responsible for mines, Sean Conway.

“We strongly recommend a single, integrated office providing services related to assessment files data, mineral claims data, geoscientific and geotechnical information, publication and map sales, OMEP (Ontario Mineral Exploration Plan) and information and communication links with the main OGS (Ontario Geological Survey) facility in Sudbury,” says the PDAC. World centre

According to the mining group, “Toronto is acknowledged as the world’s single most important centre of exploration and mine financing.” Feared by the PDAC is a significant deterioration in service which could result from the removal of the ministry’s mines and minerals division, including the OGS, from its principal user group.

The OGS, whose primary function is to provide geoscientific services and information to the exploration and mining community of Ontario, is the largest single unit operating within the ministry and comprises about 35% of the ministry’s staff.

According to the PDAC, about 70% of the companies with producing mines in Ontario have their head offices in Toronto. The city, says the PDAC, “has evolved to become the main staging ground from which major exploration programs are mounted in Ontario and many other parts of Canada.”

PDAC Managing Director Anthony Andrews says “the industry wants to be very clear it is not against developing or helping the north.” While the ministry’s relocation plan was made in the context of creating a “mining centre of excellence” in Sudbury, which would act to serve primarily the producing sector, the PDAC argues that such a development should not be at the expense of the “exploration centre of excellence” which now exists in Toronto.