The FOT’s submission focused on the following:

• Extending forest industry buffers around canoe routes and portages to the mining industry.
• Eliminating the use of cut lines around claims.
• Increasing communication and co-operation between MNDM, MNR, Ministry of Tourism, and non-governmental organizations.
• Extending the “Disruptive Mineral Exploration in Special Management Areas” process to include all Crown land areas having high recreation and tourism values, like Temagami.
• Reconcile differing land values prior to exploration, ensuring the protection of the natural environment, incorporating free, prior and informed consent, and the recognition of Aboriginal and treaty rights.
• Giving Aboriginal communities and municipalities the right to withdraw lands from prospecting within their jurisdictions.
• Changing the “Provincial Policy Statement” under the Planning Act to allow ecological, cultural and recreational values to be placed at a higher priority than mining values.

You can learn more from the MNDM webpage or from MiningWatch Canada.

You may also download the FOT’s submission (below) and use it as a template for a letter of your own. Comments are due October 15.

http://www.friendsoftemagami.org/planning/FOT_Ontario%20Mining%20Act%20Review.pdf