TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – From 2003 to 2012, the total payments originating from mining activities made to federal and provincial government coffers totalled about $71-billion, a report published by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has found.

Released on Tuesday, the yearly report quantified the total mining taxes and royalties, corporate income taxes and personal income taxes paid by mining sector employees on a national and regional scale.

“The royalties, taxes and other payments made to governments by the industry ultimately go towards supporting critical government services like health care, education and the building of infrastructure," MAC president and CEO Pierre Gratton said in a statement.

He added that this “impressive” amount of more than $70-billion over the past decade also underscored the importance of mining in Canada as both a significant employer across the country and a significant contributor to the Canadian economy.

The decade-long data shows that while payments could fluctuate – at times significantly – from year to year owing to the cyclical nature of the business, the overall contribution to governments was huge and the trend over the past decade was positive.

The most recent data for 2012 showed an overall year-over-year decline in mining payments to an estimated $6.6-billion, from about $8.3-billion in 2011. This decline could be attributed mainly to the challenging economic environment miners faced last year and the price declines experienced for the majority of major minerals.

Despite this decline, the $6.6-billion figure was still well above the $4.1-billion paid by industry in 2003. Payments peaked at a staggering $10.5-billion in 2008, before dropping to $4.9-billion in 2009, as a result of the global recession. As the mining industry recovered, payments moved upwards in tandem, reaching $8.3-billion in 2011.

In 2012, there was a decrease of about $820-million in royalties and mining taxes paid compared with 2011, as well as an estimated decrease of corporate income taxes (CIT) from $2.4-billion in 2011, to $1.2-billion in 2012 (based on current, incomplete CIT data for 2012).

However, 2012 saw a significant increase in the sector's personal income taxes of $290-million, or 15%. This increase was a result of the mining industry's role as a significant, high-paying employer in Canada. In 2012, the sector experienced strong employment growth of about 6 700 new mining jobs and equally “robust” yearly earnings increases.

According to Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian mining industry employed more than 418 000 workers across the country in 2012, which translated to 1 in every 41 Canadian jobs.

Further, the report, prepared by Entrans Policy Research Group, had found that mining workers earned the highest wages and salaries of all industrial sectors in Canada. The average weekly pay for a mining worker in 2012 was $1 599, which was more than that of workers in forestry, manufacturing, finance and construction.

“This report helps demonstrate that a strong and growing mining industry is good news for Canadians through the significant payments that flow from the industry to governments, as well as in jobs, business development and community investments. For the Canadian mining industry to continue its contributory role, however, it must have access to a regulatory and economic environment that allows it to stay competitive, especially when there is still uncertainty in the global economy,” Gratton added.