A story from TheTyee.ca regarding mining activities in northern British Columbia stands in marked contrast to the optimism in a Vancouver Sun article I mentioned recently; the Sun indicated a growing acceptance of native traditional and local knowledge in planning for mines. Of note from TheTyee.ca article:
According to a West Coast Environmental Law report, under the new act or Bill 38, environmental assessments (EA) are now discretionary.
“If the executive director of the EA office considers that a project will not have significant adverse environmental, economic, social, heritage or health effects, the project can proceed without an EA. The new Act does not identify a process by which this internal determination will be made, and there are no safeguards to ensure that decisions will not be politically driven.”
And …
Liberal policy changes have also left First Nations with no funding to become involved in the process.
Already overwhelmed with stacks of resource project documents to review, it is not surprising that some First Nations in the north have called for a moratorium on mining activities in their territory.
I wonder where this is leading …
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2 Comments
I believe that consultation (between logging/mining and First Nations)is a good thing, but that last quote has me wondering about the impact that that legislated consultation could have on smaller bands. For small bands that are already struggling to meet human resource demands on their reserve, the amount of work necessary to perform a thorough review of a resource extraction proposal must seem daunting. Especially when multiple proposals are sitting on the desk and resource company execs are putting pressure on the band to make a decision. That would make me want to put a moratorium on mining in my territory.
I think that’s an important observation, Jamie, and why I think many bands look towards agreements with resource extraction companies to help pay for environmental and cultural assessments. Thanks for that. Tad
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