Forget the window, let’s take advantage of the emerging double-door wide opportunity for mining in Ontario

Mprovince today, mining is a $10 billion per year business, which employs about 27,000 directly. Canada’s mining industry is poised to make up to $140 billion in new investments in the next five years, much of it in Ontario.

Mining is a generator of wealth with tremendous spin-off and regional development capabilities. Approximately 90% of a mine’s input costs are acquired within Canada and 80% of the mineral output is exported and positively supports the province’s and the nation’s balance of trade. Through the tax it generates both corporately and personally through income and consumption taxes, the industry supports health and education and infrastructure costs of government, which benefits us all.

On the employment front, mining is providing opportunities. One mining company in Ontario alone is planning to hire 300 new full time employees this year and 1,300 new employees in 2013. Also, mining is the largest private sector employer of Aboriginals in Canada. Aboriginals represent 7.5% of the mining workforce. Between 1996 and 2006, there was a 43% increase in the number of Aboriginals employed in the mineral sector, rising from 2,600 to more than 4,500. In the six years since 2006, this number has increased significantly as more mining exploration and development take place in areas close to Aboriginal communities.

While mining is doing relatively well at the moment, it could be doing better and play a larger role in the provincial economy with governmental support. Increasingly rapid globalization and urbanization have analysts around the world anticipating unprecedented commodity demand in the next two decades. Global construction, according to Oxford Economics, is expected to grow by 70% from $7.2 trillion in 2011 to $12 trillion by 2020. China alone is estimated to be building three Toronto-sized cities every year until 2020.

That level of growth in China and elsewhere cannot continue indefinitely. We are in a period of unprecedented growth with the development in large countries and the shift of populations from rural to urban environments.

For a jurisdiction like Ontario with an enviable geological endowment, this is a call to action. The next 20 years present a significant opportunity for a jurisdiction with the geology, environmental protections, the safety record and the government policies to build a deliberate and well planned strategy for new mines.

Building on our global reputation in mining and our desire to be leaders in the green economy, Ontario’s natural resource potential can be turned into sustainable wealth. The world needs the products of mining. What better place to mine than Ontario, with its responsible environmental protection, world class safety record and a desire to participate in the new and emerging technologies?

The existing 20-year window of opportunity can be spent on permitting and approvals, or it can be spent on opening mines. Twenty years can be longer than the life of a mine. It is more than a window in the passage of time. It is a double-door wide opportunity for Ontario to create wealth that helps, future generations survive and thrive.