Ontario among top 10 global mining jurisdictions: Quebec tops the list, Venezuala sits at the bottom.(MINING)

Ontario continues to stand tall as one of the most respected mining jurisdictions in the world, coming in the top 10, according to the Fraser Institute's annual survey of international mining companies.

However, Fred McMahon, the director of the institute's Centre for Globalization Studies says that although the news is good for Ontario, the province actually stands near the back of the Canadian pack.

"Ontario does very well, traditionally, and it certainly has this year," says McMahon, who also serves as one of the survey's coordinators.

"That said, tenth place sounds good, but it's actually at the bottom of the Canadian rankings, behind some places you might not necessarily expect."

Quebec hit top spot on the list among 71 jurisdictions across the world, while Alberta sits at fourth, Newfoundland at fifth, while New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan reached the sixth, eighth, and ninth positions, respectively.

This means that Ontario only sits ahead of Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut.

These results are a combination of 13 different policy areas, including environmental regulations, labour supply, and infrastructure.

Clear disparities between Ontario and other provinces arise in the taxation regime category. Quebec features lower royalty rates and a generally lighter tax load. It sits second behind Wyoming, whereas Ontario comes in 27th place. Similar examples arise in terms of regulatory duplication and inconsistencies. Quebec came in at the top while Ontario sank to 31 with red tape.

Uncertainty surrounding native and Aboriginal land claims stood as another weak spot for Ontario. This area stood as a mild deterrent to investment for 35 per cent of respondents, with 22 per cent saying it was a strong deterrent. Conversely, Quebec, which sits in 31st, place saw 65 per cent of respondents either encourage investment, or felt it was not a deterrent at all.

The Fraser Institute's annual survey is no casual lark; the results are often fodder for the international media, with 400 mentions last year alone.

McMahon is also regularly invited to speak about them in places such as Chile, Brazil, China and the Philippines. In fact, McMahon is forced to break off the interview with Northern Ontario Business for 10 minutes to field a request to speak at an upcoming mineral exploration and investment conference in Sydney Australia.

The survey also receives a great deal of attention in Canada, and mining ministries in particular, where "oftentimes, the bureaucracy doesn't know when it's doing bad things," he says.

The reason it's given such weight within the mining industry and government is a result of the anonymity and the broad participation of international firms, he says.

Among the 3,000 companies surveyed across the world, responses were received from 658, more than half of which consists of exploration companies.

This further breaks down to 229 company presidents, 92 vice-presidents, 128 managers, 45 consultants and 164 classified as "other," which could refer to in-house geologists, or other technical staff.

The bottom of the list consists of India, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Venezuela.

The survey also spoke to broader issues about the industry. Four out of five mining firms said they believed at least 30 per cent of exploration companies will be put out of business as a result of the economic storm, with two out of five saying it would be at least 50 per cent.

Despite the doom and gloom for the smaller players, McMahon remains hopeful.

"Juniors tend to be like flowers. They go dormant for a while, but they boom back when it rains."

More than 90 per cent of respondents felt the exploration and development activities of exploration firms will be curtailed, with 57 per cent saying it would be reduced "a great deal." Much the same was said about production firms, with 85 per cent saying such activity would shrink and 31 per cent saying it would be curtailed "a great deal."

www.fraserinstitute.org

By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business