One Kamloops councillor wants to give the public more of a voice on where mining can happen in B.C.

Denis Walsh will be bringing a motion to city council next week, asking that the Union of B.C. Municipalities request the province work to modernize mining laws by creating an advisory committee.

He says “common sense restrictions” for where mines and mineral claims are allowed would be worth considering to make legislation around.

“We want to see that the residents and communities have a voice, when issues such as Ajax when a mine is coming. That’s up to the advisory committee to figure out if that’s 10 kilometers or 50 kilometers from a municipality.”

Walsh says his motion stems from the controversial Ajax Mine that was proposed just outside city limits. The project would’ve seen a 1,700-hectare open pit mine built about 10 kilometers outside of Kamloops, but it was rejected by the province late in 2017 for environmental concerns.

“In this last go-around with Ajax, we were always that council doesn’t have a voice in this. When it’s coming to our city, there’s a lot of people who feel municipalities should have a voice in determining.”

He says a resolution on how to modernize mining laws was brought forward six years ago to the BC government but says it was never acted on.

“And now that we have a new government in the province, we feel that we should go back to the UBCM and redo the resolution and get it in front of the people and get the advisory committee started.”

Council will decide whether to go ahead with the motion on Tuesday.