Government Sidesteps Supreme Court Ruling on Environmental Assessment – Budget Bill Ignores Court Instruction to Streamline Process

Posted April 8, 2010 By móniyáw

(Ottawa) Only weeks after the Supreme Court of Canada issued a strong ruling reinforcing the federal role in assessing the environmental impacts of industrial development projects, the plaintiffs in that case say the government is using the budget implementation bill introduced on Tuesday to violate that ruling.

“The government is trying to sneak in previously unannounced measures to severely limit the application of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act,” says MiningWatch Canada spokesperson Jamie Kneen.

On January 21, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided a case brought by MiningWatch over the federal government’s handling of the proposed Red Chris copper-gold mine in British Columbia. The Court ruled that the federal government cannot assess only part of a project, or split projects into artificially small parts to avoid rigorous environmental assessments. The ruling guaranteed that the public would be consulted about major industrial projects, including large metal mines and tar sands developments. The Budget bill includes amendments to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act that would effectively reverse the Supreme Court ruling.
“The Supreme Court gave clear direction on how to minimise overlap and duplication, and if the ruling were applied properly it would also go a long way to reduce delays – yet the government has chosen to completely ignore that ruling and pursue a damn-the-torpedoes approach to development,” says Kneen.

MiningWatch is also disturbed by the secrecy surrounding the government initiative, given that the Environmental Assessment Act is required to undergo a Parliamentary review in just a few months. Says Kneen, “I am shocked at this. When the Supreme Court rendered its decision, we assumed that the government would respect the ruling, and pursue legislative change through the parliamentary review. The Government is clearly just as eager to avoid public scrutiny of its policies as it is to avoid public scrutiny of major industrial projects. Most of these changes were not even hinted at in the Throne Speech or even the Budget speech.”

“The irony,” says Kneen, “is that environmental assessment is one of the most important tools we have to balance economic interests, the environment, and the public interest. The government is not destroying that tool completely, but they’re essentially breaking off the handles.”

Categories: Entertainment, Mining
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Wealth beneath the Tsilhqot’in People?

Posted March 19, 2010 By móniyáw

Teztan Biny is More than just a Lake - It's Part of Our Culture

The Chilcotin plateau in mid-western British Columbia, Canada stretches from the mighty Fraser River west to the Coast Range mountains. It is a sparsely populated country with stark beauty. The lakes and rivers are renowned for fishing and wildlife of all kinds wander the forests and ranchlands. It is a rich land shared by ranchers, loggers, hikers, hunters, cowboys & Indians. A great variety of First Nation’s people share this “unceded” land with their neighbours from Bella Coola to William’s Lake. The Tsilhqot’in people of Xeni (also known as the Nemiah Valley Indian Band) live near the pristine Chilko Lake area. They have hunted, gathered and fished there for many generations. But..time’s are changing and a dark shadow may fall across their sunlit lakes. Prosperity looms large in their lives today. (more…)

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“Avatar” has few fans among mining executies

Posted March 11, 2010 By móniyáw

In a case of art imitating life — with perhaps a little poetic license — Oscar-winning movie “Avatar” paints big mining companies as the villains of the future.

But real-life executives are not entirely amused by their fictional colleagues being cast in evil roles in what is already the biggest-grossing Hollywood movie of all time.

“Let me put it this way, my kids saw the movie, and my kids know I’m a miner, and they didn’t say anything to me,” said Peter Kukielski, head of mining operations for ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker.

“They didn’t say a thing, and they loved the movie. They saw it twice,” he told the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit in New York this week.

“I gotta say, I gritted my teeth a few times over the manner the mining company was presented,” said Charles Jeannes, chief executive of Canada’s Goldcorp. “I loved ‘Avatar’ — once you get past the storyline, I loved the graphics.”

. . .

Gerald Grandey, CEO of uranium miner Cameco Corp appeared resigned to the fact mining companies get a bad rap driven by environmentalists.

“When you get a movie like ‘Avatar’ — I have seen it and actually enjoyed it — I thought it was just unfortunate they defaulted to the easy conflict. It was too convenient to go back to the old stereotypes.”

“Cameco is a premier example of going into a remote region, Saskatchewan, where there are 28 aboriginal communities who had never heard of mining…and now after 25 years, well over 50 percent of our employees are aboriginal.

“What we’ve done is…overcome the peer pressure, the stereotypes, the culture, the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol abuse, and one movie can put that back.”

Asked if he would you have hired the Na’vi, Grandey replied: “If it had been Cameco, they would have been walk-in employees, we’re looking for them!”

Ducks Unlimited is an example of a group that has done a lot for the environment, which was started by someone who enjoyed waterfowl hunting. I think that casting a mining company as bad for the environment is inaccurate and unfair.

The full article is here.

Categories: Arts, Business, Mining
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