Aggregate Resources and Mining Modernization Act, 2017 McGarry, Hon. Kathryn Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry — Bill 39 (41st Parliament, 2nd Session)

Bill 39, 41-2

Ontario — Bills

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Bill 39, Aggregate Resources and Mining Modernization Act, 2017

McGarry, Hon. Kathryn Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry

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Status

Debates

Acts affected

Original

As Amended by Standing Committee

Royal Assent

[41] Bill 39 Royal Assent (PDF)

EXPLANATORY

NOTE

This

Explanatory Note was written as a reader's aid to Bill 39 and does not form

part of the law.

Bill 39 has been enacted as

Chapter 6 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2017.

The

Bill amends the Aggregate Resources Act and the Mining Act . The amendments to each Act are set out in

separate Schedules.

Schedule

Amendments to the Aggregate Resources Act

The

Schedule makes various amendments to the Aggregate Resources

Act . Some of the more significant amendments are set out below.

New

section 3.1 requires the Minister to consider whether adequate consultation

with Aboriginal communities has been carried out before exercising certain

powers relating to licences or permits.

The

Schedule deals with what may happen to a pit or quarry operating in a part of

Ontario when that

part is designated by regulation under subsection 5 (2). New

subsections 5 (3) to (6) give the Minister the power to issue an aggregate

licence to a person who holds an aggregate permit to operate such a pit or

quarry and to cancel the permit. The

Schedule also amends

section 71 in

respect of applications for an aggregate licence that may be made by the

operator of an established pit or quarry situated in the newly designated part

of Ontario.

The

Schedule makes several amendments relating to aggregate licences, wayside

permits and aggregate permits, including the following:

1. New

exemptions to sections 7 and 34 allow a person to operate a pit or quarry

without an aggregate licence or an aggregate permit, as the case may be, in

specified circumstances.

2. Specific

requirements relating to applications for licences and permits are removed from

the Act and regulation-making powers are added respecting the preparation of

applications and the documentation to be included in applications, including

whether to provide a site plan. Also, new exemptions from the prescribed

notification and consultation procedures that normally apply to a person applying

for an aggregate licence or permit are added. The exemptions only apply if

specified conditions are met, including requiring the person to prepare a

custom plan setting out alternative or additional procedures and a description

of surveys, studies or documentation the applicant will prepare.

3. The

Minister is given enhanced powers to amend licences and permits and is given

the power to require a licensee or permittee to prepare a new site plan.

Licensees or permittees are given the right to apply to the Minister for an

amendment to a licence or permit and to seek the Minister's approval of a new

site plan. They are also given the power to make minor amendments to site

plans that are prescribed by regulation without the Minister's approval.

4. Currently,

the Act requires a hearing if the Minister changes the conditions of an

aggregate licence or permit. The

Schedule provides for an exception to this

requirement where the licence or permit is changed for the purpose of

implementing a source protection plan under the Clean

Water Act, 2006 .

5. Amendments

are made to deal with situations where a licensee or permittee becomes

insolvent, dies or, in the case of a corporation, is wound up or dissolved. In

such situations, the Minister is given the power to revoke or to transfer the

licence or permit. There is no right to a hearing if a licence or permit is

revoked or transferred as a result of the death of the licensee or permittee or

the winding up or dissolution of a corporation.

6. Amendments

section 34 give the Minister the power, in specified circumstances, to

designate areas of Crown land, or areas of land on or in which the aggregate or

topsoil is the property of the Crown, as areas in respect of which an aggregate

permit shall not be issued.

Amendments

require fees payable under the Act to be prescribed by regulation and not set

by the Minister. The Minister is given the ability to waive application fees

for licences and permits and other licence and permit fees. New provisions

require a person who applies to transfer or surrender a licence or permit to

pay an application fee.

The

Schedule amends provisions relating to the Aggregate Resources Trust to require

the trustee to comply with performance reporting requirements that may be

prescribed by regulation and to give the Minister the power to remove the

trustee after giving at least 90 days' notice. Regulation-making authority is

added to require fees or other payments under the Act that are payable to the

trustee to be paid to another prescribed person or entity. Regulations may

also provide for the disbursement of those fees and payments by the trustee,

person or entity to such other persons or entities as may be prescribed by

regulation.

The

Schedule includes some amendments relating to enforcement of the Act and

regulations. In order to encourage voluntary compliance, the amendments give

inspectors the power to provide a person believed to be contravening the Act or

regulations with a report indicating the contraventions identified during an

inspection. A new offence is established in respect of false or misleading

information provided under the Act. The

Schedule repeals the current penalties

for offences under the Act and provides a new maximum fine of $1,000,000 and a

new maximum daily fine of $100,000. A provision is added to protect the

Minister, inspectors and public servants from liability for any acts that they

have done in good faith under the Act.

The

Schedule includes amendments to give the Ministry powers to obtain more

information from licensees and permittees. A licensee or permittee is required

to submit reports on the progressive rehabilitation and final rehabilitation of

the site of a pit or quarry. Regulation-making powers are added to require licensees

and permittees to prepare reports on records they are required to keep under

section 62 and submit the reports to the Minister. Regulations may provide for

a person with prescribed qualifications to review technical or specialized

studies or reports that a licensee or permittee is required to prepare and to submit

a report to the Minister. The Minister is given the power to direct licensees

and permittees to submit information relating to the operation of a pit or

quarry to the Minister and to conduct inventories, tests or studies with

respect to the pit or quarry and submit a report thereon to the Minister.

Schedule

Amendments to the Mining Act

The

Schedule amends provisions of the Mining Act to

implement a new electronic mining lands administration system in Ontario, which

will include an online registration system for mining claims, and to make

certain housekeeping changes to the Act.

number of amendments, repeals and additions are made to the

definitions in

section 1 to facilitate the implementation of the new mining lands

administration system. These include adding the following defined terms:

"boundary cell", "boundary claim", "cell claim", "legacy claim", "mining claims

registry" and "mining lands administration system".

New

section 4.1 creates the new mining lands administration system. The purposes of

the system include administering public lands for mining purposes,

administering the Act with respect to prospectors' licences, mineral tenure,

and exploration plans and exploration permits, allowing for the electronic

registration of mining claims, creating and recording mining claim records, abstracts

and maps, providing electronic access to the mining claims registry and

producing reports, documents and other information. The Minister may establish

directives relating to the use of the system by the public, including

directives specifying the information that a person must submit in order to use

the system and the format in which the information must be submitted.

Subsections

7 (1) to (4) are repealed and replaced with provisions that create the mining

claims registry as an electronic public record of mining claims. The mining

claims registry is a component of the mining lands administration system.

Under

the new

section 8, a recorder is authorized to delete, correct or amend entries

in the mining claims registry and to make entries in the registry with respect

to documents received in a format other than an electronic format.

Sections

15, 16, 17 and 18 are repealed and replaced.

Section 15 now provides that

information that is to be posted or filed under the Act must be posted or filed

in a place and manner directed by the Minister and

section 16 deals with

instances when documents that are filed at offices are deemed to be received.

Section 18 has been changed to reflect the new online registration of mining

claims, as opposed to the staking and recording of such claims. Similar changes

to reflect the new online registration of mining claims are made in numerous

places in the Act, including sections 19, 21, 22, 26 to 31 and 34 to 35.1.

The

references to the "prospector's awareness program" in sections 19 and 21 and

elsewhere throughout the Act are updated to reflect the change in the name of

the program to the Mining Act awareness program.

Section

38 is repealed and replaced with a

section that implements the new mining

claims registration system. The new system requires that mining claims be

registered electronically against cells on the provincial grid in accordance

with subsections 38 (2), (3) and (4). Subsections 38 (5) and (6) deal with the

situation where a cell claim is registered for a cell but some portion of the

cell is not open for registering claims; the portion that is not open for registration

is excluded from the claim. If the portion of the cell that is not open for

registration later becomes open for registration, that portion then becomes

part of the registered cell claim.

Transitional

sections 38.1 to 38.5 are enacted to provide for existing claims (known as

"legacy claims") to be converted to the new mining claims registration system.

Section 38.1 requires that all legacy claims be delineated on the provincial

grid. On a prescribed date after the legacy claims are so delineated, they are

all converted in accordance with

section 38.2 to new cell-based mining claims

on the provincial grid; they become either cell claims for entire cells on the

provincial grid or, where specified conditions are met, boundary claims for portions

of cells on the provincial grid. A boundary cell usually includes two or more

boundary claims held by two or more claim holders. However, there are

circumstances in which a boundary cell may include two or more boundary claims

held by the same claim holder. A boundary claim continues for as long as the

specified conditions are met or until the claim holder elects to convert two or

more boundary claims located in the same boundary cell to a single cell claim

for the entire cell under subsection 38.3 (3). Furthermore, in some circumstances,

where a boundary claim is forfeited, abandoned, transferred or cancelled and

there remains only one boundary claim in the cell, the remaining boundary claim

becomes a cell claim registered against the entire cell and the boundary cell

ceases to be a boundary cell.

Section

38.4 provides for certain limitations on remedies arising from the

implementation of the new mining claims registration system.

Section

38.5 gives the Ministry the power to register a mining claim on behalf of a

licensee after the date of the conversion of legacy claims under

section 38.2

if the licensee staked the claim and ap

Document details

Collection	Ontario — Bills
Citation	Bill 39, 41-2
Type	bill
Volume / chapter	p41 s2 bill 39 html
Language	en
Format	html
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	f9a10b4fcc95fd327ac9bb7a51161ffaa779ceb1

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