A founding member of Mining Watch Canada, Northwatch was founded in 1988 to provide a regional voice on environmental concerns in northeastern Ontario. Work over the last two decades has focused on mining, forestry, and energy issues, both at the policy and project level, as well as, successfully campaigning against a series of proposals to bring foreign wastes – solid waste, medical waste, toxic waste, and nuclear waste – for dumping in northeastern Ontario. Northwatch holds a seat on the Ontario Minister’s Mining Act Advisory Committee, and works with local groups and concerned residents, including trade unions and First Nations, in responding to mining-related projects.
Mini-grant funding will be focused on addressing Ontario Regulation 308, which sets out the rules for mineral exploration in Ontario. Northwatch will conduct a field assessment of the regulation as enforced over its first three years (using an audit tool they developed with a mini-grant in 2010), conduct research to update their inventory of mineral exploration “best practices” assembled in 2010, and produce a review of Regulation 308 that will support the case for a regulation with increased protection of environmental, social and cultural values. The mini-grant will fund the field audits and report production. Learn more.