site created by noosworx.com
Licence Links
Submit
Licence Links
Submit
Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) Newswire
Licence Links
Submit
B.C. Budget Risks Water, Environment
Sierra Club BC - Last Modified: Feb 21, 2012
Photo: Doug Keech, www.dougkeech.ca
Eliminating regulations for B.C.’s expanding mining projects will jeopardize water and wildlife and lead to increased community concern and conflict, Sierra Club BC warns following the B.C. budget. The government will spend $24 million to reduce the turnaround time for mineral exploration permits, but not a penny more to ensure robust environmental assessment capacity.
The budget, released February 21, earmarks $24 million to reduce the turnaround time for mineral exploration permits as the government focuses on eliminating “unnecessary regulations” for B.C.’s rapidly expanding mining sector.
“British Columbians are increasingly concerned about secure access to clean water, but this budget fast-tracks mining projects while cutting regulatory provisions that clearly exist to protect the public interest,” said Sierra Club BC Executive Director George Heyman. “There is no vision here for a sustainable economy that protects our environmental assets. Instead, we have more raw resource extraction with reduced public interest protection.”
Government’s public affairs bureau budget – at $26 million — is now three times as big as the budget for B.C.’s environmental assessment office, which has been frozen at $8.75 million despite a significant leap in proposed mining and energy projects.
“There appears to be plenty of money for the government to spin its message, but no increased funding for environmental assessment. New mine proposals around the province, and the environmentally questionable practice of natural gas fracking, cry out for strong measures that guarantee public and community health,” said Heyman.
Notably, B.C.’s environmental assessment process gave a green-light to the controversial “Prosperity” open pit mine at Fish Lake, a mine that was later rejected by former federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice. “And now the B.C. government wants to make it even easier for mining companies to engage in controversial road-building and drilling that will only lead to community conflict and economic uncertainty around the province,” said Heyman.
Heyman also said the government’s announcement of a one-year review of B.C.’s carbon tax sends the wrong signal at a critical time when scientists say we need immediate action to slow global warming. “Real climate leadership requires long-term commitment, not a one-time gesture,” he stated. Learn more about global warming and the need for action.
Rather than starting to restore B.C.’s ailing parks system following a decade of devastating cuts, the parks budget remains static. “Investing in B.C.’s parks system would create jobs and provide B.C. families with affordable recreation activities that help children develop healthy lifestyles. If Premier Clark is serious about focusing on families, repairing our B.C. parks system would be a great place to start.”
Heyman said the B.C. government needs to follow the lead of jurisdictions like Ontario and eliminate privileged permit treatment for the mining sector by modernizing B.C.’s mineral tenure act to ensure a level playing field for all industries, and respect for community development plans and First Nations rights. Learn more.
http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca/our-work/mining-energy/spotlights/b.c.-budget-risks-water-environment
Deja-Vu for Fish Lake
Sierra Club of BC - February 16, 2012
Photo: Lee-Anne Stack, www.oceans-and-above.com
It’s déjà-vu for Fish Lake. The federal government is now accepting public comments for an environmental assessment of Taseko’s “New Prosperity” mine. Sound familiar? A previous federal environmental assessment found that the proposed gold and copper mine near Williams Lake would cause irreparable damage. So why is a questionable project back on the front burner? Take Action.
Taseko Mines Ltd.’s original proposal for an open pit mine near Williams Lake was rejected in November 2010 by former federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice, following a scathing environmental assessment that concluded the mine would cause irreparable damage to First Nations rights, as well as to fish stocks and at-risk grizzly populations.
One year later, in November 2011, Ottawa accepted a second open pit mine proposal from Taseko for environmental review. The company’s first proposal would have turned Fish Lake – home to 80,000 rainbow trout and once featured on a B.C. tourism brochure – into a toxic tailings pond. The proposal under current review would see Fish Lake rendered unusable for up to 33 years. Little Fish Lake, which is crucial to the ecosystem that supports the unique trout population, would be destroyed.
Click here to submit a comment to the federal environmental assessment until February 22.
“There is something seriously wrong with our assessment process when a company like Taseko can simply re-submit a mining proposal after it has been soundly rejected,” said Sierra Club BC Executive Director George Heyman. “It would be a far better use of time and money to focus on mining proposals that are more environmentally appropriate and have the support of First Nations.”
The proposed mine is on the traditional lands of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation, a member of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which won a court case recognizing its rights to the area and is staunchly opposed to the mine. Read Chief Marilyn Baptiste’s letter in the Vancouver Sun.
Changes to the federal Fisheries Act allow metal mining corporations to use Canadian lakes to dispose of the millions of tonnes of toxic waste rock and tailings they generate. Little Fish Lake would be Canada’s fifth pristine natural water body authorized for destruction under this loophole, which was originally introduced solely to allow mines already approved and in existence to complete their economic life cycle.
Sierra Club BC and other groups are asking Ottawa to close the legislative loophole that allows destruction of Canada’s freshwater bodies for toxic mine tailings, and to ensure the intent of our Fisheries Act is no longer undermined.
New Prosperity Mine proposal panned by chief
By Carole Rooney - 100 Mile House Free Press
Published: February 15, 2012 8:00 AM
Updated: February 15, 2012 8:10 AM
Taseko Mines Ltd. vice-president Brian Battison is involved in extensive studies for the New Prosperity Mine federal environmental assessment. Last November, it was granted one year to resubmit its proposal.
An area First Nations leader doesn’t agree Taseko Mines Ltd. could successfully preserve Fish Lake in the proposed New Prosperity Mine project.
Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) tribal chair Chief Joe Alphonse says Fish Lake might remain there, but it wouldn’t have any fish in it.
The new proposal is “wiping out 80 per cent of the spawning grounds,” he explains. Regardless, what the plan is, Alphonse says the proposal for a mine and dam there would destroy the lake.
“There’s no dam in the world that has never leaked. Seepage is going to happen whether you like it or not.”
Even moving the mine a kilometre or two upstream, everything is still going to drain into Fish Lake, the TNG chair explains.
“We’re concerned that population of fish is going to be wiped out. That’s our biggest concern … has always been our concern…. What good is a lake that’s got no fish in it?”
Brian Battison, Taseko Mines Ltd corporate affairs vice-president, says the main reason the first proposal was rejected was the impact it would have on Fish Lake, but there is a way to retain the lake and control seepage.
“It was one of the ways that was examined as part of the alternatives assessment, which was part of the previous assessment as one of the options.
“There were other ways to do it, but none of them were economic … it was not viable at the time.”
Battison says the points Chief Alphonse raises will be examined in “considerable” detail in the environmental assessment process.
Taseko’s studies are still underway, he adds, and will continue for some time yet during the year’s timeline it was granted last November to resubmit.
“Those points will be addressed in detail, and need to be addressed to the satisfaction of regulators and to the Government of Canada.”
Battison explains Taseko expects examination of the interrelationship between the mine components and Fish Lake will be the “central focus” during the upcoming environmental assessment process.
“That is precisely what the studies we’re doing [are], and the kind of studies that need to be done to satisfy an environmental assessment.”
Meanwhile, Alphonse says it’s “just another kick at the can” for Taseko Mines and “more about bruised egos” than anything else.
However, Battison says Taseko would not be making the effort to submit a new plan if it didn’t believe these issues could be satisfactorily addressed for federal and provincial government regulators.
“We would not be pursuing an environmental assessment for this project if we weren’t fully confident we could address the concerns identified in the first environmental assessment.
“[The federal government was] very clear in their signals that they weren’t opposed to the mine being here, if we can address things.”
The process incorporates participation from the public, he notes, along with government regulators, that all have or may have direct input and questions answered.
Alphonse adds Taseko’s proposal is unlikely to succeed if an impartial review panel is selected.
“[Tsilhqot’in chiefs] are in a situation where we know they have to pick a panel, and as long as the panel is unbiased and that panel is comprised of a bunch of professionals, we think the findings are going to be again no different than they were the last go-around. We have confidence in that.”
Regarding the legal action Taseko announced Nov. 14 against undisclosed individuals who obstructed its employees and equipment convoy from entering the mine site, Battison remains tight-lipped.
“I’m not going to make any comment on that. I’m just not able to.”
He won’t confirm if this is due to legal proceedings.
Stop the “New Prosperity” Mine at Fish Lake
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is accepting comments from the public until February 22. Please send a letter now.
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 80th Session
February 13, 2012
Report by the Tsilhqot’in Nation:
?Esdilagh (Alexandria Indian Band), Tsi Deldel (Alexis Creek First Nations), Tl’etinqox-T’in (Anaham Indian Band), Yunesit’in (Stone Indian Band), Tl’esqox (Toosey Indian Band), and Xeni Gwet’in First Nations (Nemiah Valley Indian Band)
Tel: (001) 250 392 3918 Fax: (001) 250 398 5798
January 2012
February 11, 2012
British Columbia: Tsilhqot’in National Government - No To Prosperity Mine
The Tsilhqot’in National Government has called on the Federal government to halt the continuous drain on everyone’s time and resources and to reject Taseko Mines Ltd’s (TML) second rebid for the Prosperity Mine project.
“If the Canadian government wants to reduce its deficit, then cancel this process. It will prevent the frivolous spending of tax money consistently being wasted to review a mine that will not go through,” said TNG Tribal Chair Chief Joe Alphonse. “Today’s announcement by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency merely finds that the company has finally completed their project description up to the point where a next step could be considered. The fact remains that this bid, which was presented to the previous Expert Panel and deemed worse than the original plan, fails to address any of the environmentally scathing issues that led to the first proposal being rejected.”
“Surrounding our sacred lake with an open pit mine, preventing access to it for 33 or more years, destroying its fish spawning grounds and most likely destroying the lake later as it receives toxic tailings or the mine expands is clearly not an improvement,” said Marilyn Baptiste, Chief, Xeni Gwet’in.
Hearings get underway for another controversial B.C. project: Prosperity mine
Winnipeg Free Press - January 29, 2012
The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION
WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. - With all eyes on hearings for the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline that would link Alberta’s oil sands to tankers on the B.C. coast, a federal environmental review of another contentious B.C. project is quietly getting underway.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has released guidelines and terms of reference that will form the framework for an environmental review of Taseko Mines Ltd.’s (TSX:TKO) proposed Prosperity gold and copper mine in the B.C. Interior.
The agency is seeking comments on the documents until Feb. 22.
But the approach of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government toward the federal hearings on the Northern Gateway doesn’t give First Nations opponents much faith in the environmental review of the mine.
“We feel the writing’s on the wall,” Chief Joe Alphonse, leader of the Tsilqhot’in National Government, said in an interview.
“Mr. Harper is making statements around the Enbridge project that anyone opposing the project is an enemy of Canada. That’s the same situation.”
Alphonse said he fears that approval of the Prosperity Mine, 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake, B.C., is a foregone conclusion.
The Tsilqhot’in will still take part in the review, however, “as distasteful as that might be,” Alphonse said.
“Our position is that we have to participate to protect our interests… we still have to go through the motions because, at the end of the day, when that political process fails us, we still have to turn to the courts for justice and the moment we walk into a courtroom they’re going to tell us: you had to participate.”
Taseko’s original proposal for the $1.5-billion project was accepted by the province but rejected by a federal environmental panel last year because the company wanted to drain Fish Lake for use as a tailings pond.
The revised proposal would see the company spend $300 million to build its own tailings pond, rather than use the trout-bearing lake, known to local First Nations as Tetzan Biny.
In December, the Tsilqhot’in First Nation was granted a court injunction to stop Taseko from undertaking exploratory work on the mine pending the review.
Although the Tsilqhot’in will participate in the review, the band did not apply for money from a federal fund for aboriginal groups to participate, nor did most other First Nations groups in the area.
The federal agency announced last week that nine groups will split nearly $138,000 in federal funding to participate in the review.
But while more than $200,000 was available to aboriginal groups to allow them to participate, only one group made an application. The Esketemc First Nation asked for and received $27,800.
The Metis Nation of British Columbia, whose application was transferred from a general funding program, will also receive $19,000.
Seven other interest groups will receive a total of $91,000 from the separate, general participant funding program, including Friends of Nemaiah Valley, which will receive $19,000, and the Sierra Club of British Columbia, which will receive $18,600.
MiningWatch Canada, the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, Share the Cariboo-Chilcotin Resources Society, and the Environmental Mining Education Foundation will also receive funds, as well as an individual named Federico G. Osorio.
Brian Battison, vice-president of corporate affairs for Taseko, said the company is looking at the guidelines and preparing its response, which is “a tremendous amount of work.”
Battison said much of the original mine proposal was accepted by the first review panel, and those aspects will not have to be reviewed again. What has changed are the two aspects around the use of Fish Lake as a tailings pond.
“It’s a significant difference. It’s a $300-million difference in terms of cost, to save the lake.”
Battison said the project has community support in the Cariboo region, where it will have a significant economic impact.
Agency spokesperson Lucille Jamault said members of the public have until Feb. 22 to submit written comments on the draft guidelines and the terms of reference, then the next step will be for the federal environment minister to name the panel, which was given a year to complete the review when it was announced last November.
A band election in Tsi Del Del, in Alexis Creek, earlier this month served as a referendum of sorts on the issue. Chief Percy Guichon, a vocal critic of the mine development, soundly defeated a challenger who was in favour of the mine in a campaign dominated by the issue.
Taseko says Prosperity - the largest undeveloped gold-copper deposit in Canada and seventh largest in the world - will generate 71,000 jobs over the course of its operation and put $10 billion in government coffers.
Save Fish Lake (again!)
Wilderness Committee - January 26, 2012
On Monday, the federal government announced that they were accepting public comments for an Environmental Assessment for Taseko Mines Ltd’s New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine project. If that sounds familiar to you it is because just over a year ago Taseko’s first Prosperity Mine proposal was turned down by the same government process.
Taseko’s original proposal was to use Fish Lake as their tailings pond, where they would store toxic waste rock produced by mining operations. During the first assessment, the company was told they needed to find an alternative to this, because it would destroy Fish Lake. Taseko’s engineers offered Little Fish Lake as an alternate site for the tailings pond. However, eventually the toxins from the Little Fish Lake site would make their way downstream to Fish Lake. In fact, the review panel concluded that this “would result in greater long-term environmental risk.”
Despite this history, the new mine plan that Taseko is seeking approval for proposes turning Little Fish Lake in to a toxic tailings pond.
If you are confused as to why the company would return with a proposal that has already been deemed worse than the one that was just rejected, you are not alone. In fact the whole idea of turning a lake, especially a lake called Fish Lake, in to a dump site for toxic tailings probably seems like a crazy idea.
It’s not just that this proposal has already been rejected once; or that it will threaten tens of thousands of fish and pollute the headwaters of a river network that supports the world’s largest run of wild salmon; or that the locally blue-listed population of grizzly bears would be threatened by this project; or even that the Tsilhqot’in Nation, the area’s First Nations people, are strongly opposed to the project. The craziest thing about this project is that – if people like you and I don’t take this opportunity to speak up – there is a good chance that this mine will get built.
Together, we can save Fish Lake. Again.
Sven Biggs | Outreach Director
Wilderness Committee
(Earth Focus: Episode 34) Canada may be one of the world’s largest gold mining nations, but both its overseas and domestic mining activities are controversial. In this Earth Focus report, Human Rights Watch looks at the allegations of gang rapes and other violent abuses at the Pogera Mine in Papua New Guinea, which is operated and 95 percent-owned by Barrick Gold — a Canadian company that is the world’s largest gold producer. The Tsilhqot’in and Xeni Gwet’in people of British Columbia, Canada are struggling to stop the construction of Prosperity Mine, a gold and copper mine proposed by Taseko Mines Ltd., which would destroy Fish Lake (Teztan Biny), a sacred-held body of water.
New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project Public Comment Period and Participant Funding
CNW Canada News Wire - January 23, 2012 3:36 PM
New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project Public Comment Period and Participant Funding
OTTAWA, Jan. 23, 2012 /CNW/ - The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (the Agency) today announced the start of a public comment period on two documents related to the environmental assessment of the New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine project in British Columbia.
The Agency invites the public to comment on the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) guidelines and the draft terms of reference for the review panel. The guidelines provide direction to the proponent and identify the information that is required in the environmental impact statement. The terms of reference establish the mandate and authorities of the review panel, as well as the procedures and timelines for the review.
The public is invited to submit written comments on both documents to the Agency in either official language by February 22, 2012. After taking public comments into consideration, the guidelines and the terms of reference will be finalized and made public.
The draft EIS guidelines, the draft terms of reference as well as additional information on the project are available in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry on the Agency’s Web site at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca under reference # 11-05-63928.
To submit comments, obtain a copy of the documents or to register as an interested party and be kept informed of the panel review process activities, contact:
Livain Michaud, Panel Manager
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
160 Elgin Street, 22nd Floor, Ottawa ON K1A 0H3
Tel.: 613-948-1359 / 1-866-582-1884 / Fax: 613-957-0941
NewProsperityReview@ceaa-acee.gc.ca
Participant Funding
The Agency has awarded a total of $91,000 to seven applicants to support their participation in the environmental review of the project. The funding recipients are Federico G. Osorio, the Friends of Nemaiah Valley, MiningWatch Canada, the Share the Cariboo - Chilcotin Resources Society, the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club British Columbia, and the Environmental Mining Education Foundation.
The funding is provided to help recipients prepare for and participate in the upcoming steps of the review process, including reviewing and commenting on the draft EIS guidelines and panel terms of reference, the EIS and participating in public hearings.
A committee independent of the review process assessed the applications and made recommendations on funding awards. The committee’s report is available on the public registry noted above.
Taseko Mines Ltd. proposes the construction and operation of a large open pit gold-copper mine development, approximately 125 km southwest of Williams Lake, B.C.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency administers the federal environmental assessment process, which identifies the environmental effects of proposed projects and measures to address those effects, in support of sustainable development.
For further information:Media may contact:
Lucille Jamault
Manager, Communications
Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
Tel.: 613-957-0434
