First mining claim for post-devo GNWT
'Coming of age for the territory,' says minister
Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Friday, April 4, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It was straight to business for the GNWT as devolution came into effect last Tuesday. David Ramsay, minister of Industry, Tourism, and Investment (ITI), marked the day by witnessing the first mineral claim filed in the newly devolved GNWT.
Minister David Ramsay congratulates Panarc Resources' Lou Covello after Covello filed the first mining claim with the GNWT on devolution day, April 1, 2014. The claim marks the beginning of a new era in the North, Ramsay said. - Walter Strong/NNSL |
Lou Covello, consulting geologist and spokesperson for Whitehorse-based Panarc Resources, filed three mineral claims totalling 3,758 hectares with the mining registry office in Yellowknife. The claims were earlier staked in the field for Panarc by Yellowknife's Aurora Geosciences.
"Today is an historic day for the NWT," Ramsay said. "It's a coming of age for the territory."
"We have our hands, today, firmly on the controls of environment and resource development in the territories ... Decisions on behalf of the NWT are going to be made by Northerners - elected leaders in the NWT - not in Ottawa, in many cases by people who (had) never been north of 60."
The mining claim registration was the only event marking the day, other than a gathering in legislature of former federal government employees to welcome them to their new positions with the GNWT.
Ramsay was asked what Yellowknifer's should make of the GNWT's low-key approach to devolution day.
"Today is about getting to work," Ramsay said.
"That's not to say we won't look at some kind of formal celebration in the summer or down the road," he added.
The newly devolved GNWT also collected what was probably its first revenue related to mineral exploration in the NWT when Covello handed over a cheque for $937.50.
If filing a claim on the day of devolution was any different than it would have been the day before, it was in the details.
"A single unit claim is now 500 metres by 500 metres, instead of 1,500 feet by 1,500 feet," Covello said.
"It means we get to stake slightly larger claims."
Staking larger claims with each application means more efficient registry filing. Besides being more efficient, the move to metric finally reflects the maps surveyors and prospectors have been using for about 40 years.
"The maps have been metric since the 70s," Covello said. "It's about time."
