I also a seperate letter to a few MLA's with copies to the Minister of Mines, Teck and the Tahltan administration.

Greetings,

 BC should consider manufacturing its own electric vehicle for market at home and internationally. The world is developing a huge appetite for such transportation, So why don't we provide it . We have the minerals and we have the know how. Could not our provincial government coordinate and support such a project? Electric cars take a lot more copper than conventional vehicles. We have copper. 

If we do not build cars then we should at least provide the wiring for these vehicles. Our provincial government should look into the economic and environmental viability of building a copper smelter and refinery. We presently produce copper ore for export. This is equivalent of shipping our trees out of the country with the branches still on. 

Alberta is threatening to not use our electricity. Good. Why don't we use it ourselves to produce copper wire and possibly an electric car. We should soon have enough electricity that allows a large portion of our population to convert to electric transportation. At least we should be turning our ore into ingots. But preferably usable products. 

There is a serious worldwide copper shortage projected. This deficiency is expected to start happening this year and get worse every year. China wants to convert to electric vehicles. They will need copper. We have this metal and can easily ship it to them. It would be a shame if China cannot break away from fossil fuels because of a lack of material. 

There are certain things BC needs to do in regards to assisting the world to become a cleaner place.

The government needs to be proactive when it comes to developing copper mines. Tailings ponds can be made secure. They do not have to harm the environment. Fossil fuels cannot be used without environmental repercussions. 

British Columbians need to lead by example and start breaking away from oil. We are being criticized for our stand on protecting our coast mostly because we also use oil  . Well we can counter that argument by being an active advocate of electricity.

We need to stop allowing large corporations from holding control of our resources. Many companies obtain mineral rights without intentions of mining them. There should be a sunset provision on these rights. I hope as an MLA you will look into this. I wrote the Minister of Mines about this and used Teck as an example. I am familiar with Schaft Creek because I invested in the exploration company that exposed the amount of minerals at this site. But it is only an example, there are many situations like this. Copper Fox Minerals explored the Schaft Creek area. They found it to be a huge deposit and completed a positive Bankable Feasibility Study.  Teck then took control and removed their name off of the queue for the power line and the port space that Copper Fox had reserved for them. Hardly actions of a company that plans on mining the site. They even refer to the site as being "maintained" on their web site. 

Many of these large mining companies have mineral holdings all over the world. I do not have an issue with that. But, should they not relinquish their rights to the BC mineral deposits that they are not going to mine. How many have BC in their 100 year plans but not in their 10 year projections? This is unacceptable. I am in no way suggesting that the government try to force any company to develop a mine. But on the other hand, the government should not allow our minerals to be held by entities that are not intending on developing them. There should be limits on how long they can hold these claims. Knowing that they need to, use it or lose it, would encourage these corporations to be serious about their holdings. They do pay yearly fees but this small change compared to the economic and material benefits a mine brings.

 Thanks for reading this far, I hope you can give some thought to this idea.

Thank you Xxx Xxx

she did respond to thank me for the information and to find out if the Minister of Mines had responded to my first letter.