Geoscience BC given provincial funding boost

New funding for Geoscience BC will be new money in the pockets of northern British Columbians in particular.

Entire communities have multi-million-dollar economic injections already underway thanks to this unique public agency, northern ones specifically, and the provincial government's financial input announced in Vanderhoof this week gave a bright outlook to more of that.

With Geoscience BC officials Robin Archdekin (president and CEO) and Andrea Clifford (project manager and communications manager) in the room, B.C.'s Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett took the stage at the Minerals North conference and trade show in Vanderhoof and announced a $3 million operating grant to Canada's only arm's length agency devoted to collecting baseline geological data for the benefit of all land-use stakeholders.

"It's quite extraordinary. There is no question there is a linkage between the record investment in mining exploration the last couple of years and the work Geoscience BC has done [since it was invented in 2005]," said Bennett. "New Gold's Blackwater project (a proposed gold mine near Vanderhoof) and the Huckleberry Mine expansion (near Burns Lake/Houston) are two good examples of how it benefits all of us. When you look at Huckleberry, their data formed a lot of the information that led to the discovery of enough mineralization to carry on another 10 years at that site. That's a decade's worth of good-paying jobs for 100 employees and their families, and revenues shared by the province and the four First Nations of that area. That's a lot of economic upside to one file Geoscience BC was involved on. So we think that $3 million of taxpayers' money to Geoscience BC is one of the best possible examples of smart government investment."

New Gold official Tim Bekhuys agreed.

"I have to say thank you for the work Geoscience BC has done," he told the Minerals North audience. He said the Blackwater project "probably wouldn't be in existence were it not for their data" but because of the information their baseline studies provided, New Gold embarked on one of the most aggressive exploration programs in Canadian mining history, pumping tens of millions of dollars into northern pockets especially in and around Vanderhoof.

Clifford said the benefits of their work were not just for the sake of a mining company. Environmental groups, First Nations, other resource industry players, etc., all have free and equal access to the information Geoscience BC collects. Their data can be used to spare those various interests the massive costs of futile searching in areas found to be lacking in geological features, as much as pinpoint areas of particular interest.

It also takes the burden of raw data collection off of the private sector so mining and petroleum and other sectors can invest more precisely in the province.

Geoscience BC does this by collecting all known historical data from these regions of study (public information plus as much private information as companies will provide), plus deploys professional geologists and other needed scientists out into the field to gather earth and water samples for brand new analysis. All of it is held in a public trove of information that may be useful in the decades and centuries ahead in ways no one can yet predict.

"We add value to existing data sets," said Clifford, who is also a professional geologist herself. When it all gets put together into "some pretty intense software" and turned into maps, graphs and charts, "we can become one-stop shopping and hopefully used for vectoring new exploration."

Archdekin said the negotiations with government were challenging because the taxpayer's purse is tight these days. The $3 million is likewise accounted for closely, they are just grateful to have it.

"We were really pleased to have minister Bennett there at Minerals North to send this message," Archdekin said. "He has always been a champion of Geoscience BC and we really value his support. He said it well that Geoscience BC is part of attracting investment to B.C. and making a positive difference in the ongoing plans of the province. This investment is going to support new business opportunities and jobs. That is at the top of our minds once we collect our science."

The bulk of their work is being done in the north, and a significant amount of it in the Central Interior where large tracts of land have never been seen by the drills, lasers, satellites and microscopes used by Geoscience BC, depending on what the study is for.

The future of the agency still hasn't been established, though. Archdekin said this was clearly an issue they needed to address with government, but Bennett's announcement was specifically in aid of those negotiations.

"This is interim funding while we work out together what the long-term funding formula is going to look like," said Archdekin. "We are happy to have this, knowing they are committed to thinking about our long-term. In terms of this year and the projects we are involved in, this is a good amount. We are very happy with what they've given us."