Royalty issue not so simple

While there is an argument to be made that Nunavut should have greater access to the royalties from mining (and eventually oil and gas production), the situation is not as simple as it would seem to be from your editorial of Jan. 16.

The first issue is that there are indeed three mines that are in the process of being approved right now. However, two of those mines are located on lands in which Inuit have the mineral rights. Royalties collected from those two mines would not go to the Nunavut government even if it did collect royalties. Those royalties are collected by NTI for the benefit of Inuit.

The second issue is how much the royalties would actually be. While petroleum and big diamond projects like Diavik and Ekati potentially generate huge royalties, most mines, diamonds and gold included, simply do not. The majority of the benefit from these mines are not the royalties at all. They are the taxes, employment and contracting costs that the mine pays. That is millions of dollars potentially flowing directly into the economy through salaries and contracts.

While it is important to make sure the royalties from projects in Nunavut benefit the people of Nunavut, there is, even without those royalties, a large pool of income potentially available. To access that money, however, requires that, to be ready, the people make education, training and planning a priority.

To use the easy analogy, you can get people to pay you for the fish they catch in your river. You can make a lot more money if you sell them their fishing rod, get paid for helping them clean their fish, and sell them their camping supplies.

Keith Morrison
Cambridge Bay