Province targets eight new mines by 2015 in strategy - Kamloops Daily News

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By Cam Fortems
Kamloops Daily News Staff Reporter

The B.C. Liberal government announced a strategy Wednesday to create new mines in B.C. as a way to boost jobs and tax revenue.

“Long-term growth in our mining industry will translate into strong economic growth for our communities, First Nations and the province, and thousands of well-paying jobs that will benefit families in British Columbia,” Premier Christy Clark said in a statement.

The province is targeting creation of eight new mines by 2015. It did not detail those locations, including whether the proposed Ajax mine in Kamloops is among them.

To achieve that goal it will work with the federal government to create a single environmental review in a bid to get rid of duplication. The federal Conservative government announced that measure in its last budget.

It will also work to reduce a backlog of tenure and work applications, including exempting some exploration work considered low risk.

The announcement would not appear to affect the proposed Ajax mine south of Kamloops, since it is already in the midst of a comprehensive federal-provincial environmental assessment. The federal government said earlier its changes won’t affect the Ajax process.

“We’ve been in this process for 10 years,” said KGHM-Ajax community relations manager Norm Thompson. “To shortcut anything now doesn’t make sense to us.”

Thompson said any regulatory changes will come too late for Ajax, which is targeting having an application detailing all environmental and other studies done this year.

“By the time they get that (single review) we’ll have our application in and before the ministers.”

Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger, a former mines minister, said industry benefits are enormous and the province wants to encourage more mines operated in an environmentally sensitive way.

“Our government is certainly mining-friendly. Mines are a huge generator of employment and the average salary is $120,000 per employee.”

Krueger cautioned, however, new mines, including Ajax, will be held to high standards.

But NDP mining critic Doug Donaldson called the B.C. Liberal government a supporter of federal legislation that will gut environmental protections.

Provincial ministries also suffer from a lack of resources protect the environment and to assist mining activity.

“People need trust put back in the environmental process in B.C.,” Donaldson said.

B.C.‘s mining industry applauded the announcement.

“As B.C. celebrates a record $463 million spent on mineral exploration in 2011, it is important to have a strategy that acknowledges the province’s great mineral resources and the potential benefits of responsible mineral development to all British Columbians,” said Gavin Dirom, head of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

Failure to engage First Nations snags mining plans - Vancouver Sun

By Doug Donaldson, Special to the Sun May 14, 2012

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Mining Week in B.C. is an opportunity to remind British Columbians of the importance of the resource economy in our province. We are blessed with a province rich in many natural resources that have always played an important role in our economy, from fishing to forestry to mining.

With the recent decline in the forest sector, mining is increasingly important for British Columbia. It provides important economic benefits throughout the province, support for government programs like education and health care, and offers good jobs, especially in rural communities.

Over the past decade, we have seen a dramatic increase in world metal prices, which in turn has led to an increase in exploration throughout the province. B.C.’s New Democrats are meeting and working with the mining industry in order to better understand their needs. What we have heard is that certainty on the land base is crucial when deciding where to pursue investment.

Miners on the road to success understand the need for social license in order for projects to proceed. And the basis of that social license is having a full, robust hearing of social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of a proposed project. Taking shortcuts leads to uncertainty, and uncertainty leads to unnecessary delays in reaching a decision.

Successful mining companies understand this. It seems the B.C. Liberal government does not.

The government has failed to capitalize on a decade of soaring commodity prices. While prices went up, the government’s investment in the success of the industry went down through cuts to the resource ministries, changes to environmental standards that lost the public’s trust, and a failure to create a framework for consultation with first nations that is both respectful and thorough. All of these failures contribute to uncertainty for miners.

The failure to develop a constructive relationship with first nations and a consultation framework to guide companies in their attempts to develop our mineral resources has created much division in communities and reduced certainty on the land base. Nowhere is the breakdown in constructive dialogue more evident than in the case of the Prosperity and New Prosperity mine proposals put forward by Taseko Mines. Instead of fostering an inclusive process and encouraging Taseko to work with local first nations, the B.C. government promoted the mine — even before the federal environmental assessment process was complete.

British Columbians hear every day that the Liberals won’t take a position on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline because it is under federal review. But in the case of Taseko’s original proposal, they were more than happy to weigh in. After the federal review rejected the mine, calling the environmental concerns “pronounced” and “scathing,” while citing the “loss of the entire ecosystem,” Premier Clark said it was a “dumb decision” not to allow the mine to be built.

As Taseko moves into a new federal hearing based on revised plans that would save Fish Lake, but locate the tailings pond upstream of it, we find yet another example of strained relationships with first nations. The federal minister has been asked to ban aboriginal prayer ceremonies, remove any consideration of native spirituality in the review and ensure assessment panel membership does not include those of first nations descent. A request like this displays an unfortunate lack of understanding of the cultural reality under which resource companies must operate in B.C. to be successful.

Provincial NDP caucus speaks out against pipeline - Terrace Standard

Read the story online here: http://www.terracestandard.com/news/149597345.html

The NDP caucus has written and signed a letter detailing its opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and sent it to the National Energy Board Joint Review Panel, which will decide whether the project will go ahead.

The three northwest MLAs – North Coast MLA Gary Coons, Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson and Skeena NDP MLA Robin Austin – have made their opposition to the project known but this letter is significant, said Austin.

“This is significant because it’s signed by every member of the NDP caucus, including [opposition leader] Adrian Dix,” he said.

The 11-page letter talks about a number of issues, including the importance of sustainable economic development, risks outweighing benefits and oil spill impact plus two pages of footnotes and a page with all 35 caucus member signatures on it.

The caucus’ main concerns are:

B.C.‘s Official Opposition outlines objections to Enbridge pipeline to Joint Review Panel

http://bcndpcaucus.ca/en/bc_ndp_outlines_objections_to_enbridge_pipeline_to_joint_review_panel

April 30, 2012

VICTORIA – B.C.‘s Official Opposition caucus has formally registered its opposition to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project with the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel.

“Under the Enbridge proposal, British Columbia would assume almost all the project’s risk, yet would see only a fraction of the benefits,” said New Democrat leader Adrian Dix. “By any measure, such a high-risk, low-return approach simply isn’t in B.C.’s interests.”

The letter outlines six key concerns regarding the Northern Gateway Project:

Lifting the current tanker moratorium will put B.C.’s coastline at serious risk of devastating environmental and economic damage from oil spills; The pipeline will traverse remote, highly valued areas of B.C., crossing almost 800 streams, putting these valuable environments and species, such as salmon, at risk; First Nation communities would be most severely affected by an oil leak or spill. First Nations must be consulted effectively and be respected on a government-to-government level , as has been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada; Greenhouse gas emissions generated by NGP-related oil sands development will contribute to the costs of climate change; The NGP provides few long-term, sustainable economic benefits for B.C., and forgoes value-added economic activity involving upgrading and refining in Canada; Canadian consumers will see increased Canadian oil prices.

New Democrat environment critic Rob Fleming, as well as Skeena MLA Robin Austin, Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson and North Coast MLA Gary Coons, are already participating in the Joint Review Panel’s process, either as interveners or presenters.

“B.C. New Democrats are taking a stand on the Enbridge pipeline because B.C.’s interests are not being adequately represented nor protected by the provincial government in the review process,” said Dix. “It is simply not good enough to state, as the premier has, that the government is going to wait for the process to unfold before taking a position. The time to take a position is now.”

Rock Talk in Smithers brings good news

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By Cameron Orr – Smithers Interior News
Published: February 27, 2012

To a non-geologist onlooker, Rock Talk may cause eyes to glaze with an abundance of technical jargon.

However the annual Smithers-based conference on mineral exploration and mining had some rocking good news.

Christine Ogryzlo, communications director for the Smithers Exploration Group, said that there are two main things that people in the Bulkley Valley should know about the industry this year.

“First of all, northwestern British Columbia is the busiest part of this province as a dense area for mineral exploration. In 2011, half of the expenditures on mineral exploration took place in northwestern British Columbia. There was a record $220 million spent on exploration…That’s pretty impressive,” she said.

The other thing that people should know is that Smithers itself has a “critical mass” of professionals and support companies for the industry.

“Smithers plays a very important role in the projects that are all the way…to the Yukon border.”

Smithers continues to be an attractive town for the industry with the abundance of professionals and also the well-serviced airport.

Ogryzlo also said that there is no reason to expect the high level of spending on exploration for the region to go down anytime soon.

“That’s because of the driving of the commodity prices. Commodity prices for copper, for gold, any of the precious metals, are at record highs,” she said.

In regional geologist Jeff Kyba’s presentation he pointed out that the $220 million spent in the northwest is an increase of $48 million from 2010, and includes at least 54 drilling projects and 21 projects with over $2 million in expenditures.

In the Omenica region, exploration spending also grew to $71.5 million, according to the report of John DeGrace, a contraction regional geologist based in Prince George. That is an increase from $33 million in 2010.

Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach thinks that Smithers is poised to benefit from industry activity in the coming years.

He added that the town is lucky to have the Smithers Exploration Group to promote exploration activity in the area.

Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson, also the official opposition’s mining critic, said that he will take mining issues to the legislature and will be questioning the government on priority spending for the mining sector.

Among the focuses for Donaldson is development a framework around First Nation consultation. As deputy chair for the Select Standing Committee on Finance, he said he heard om a lot of people in the private sector saying they want the government to establish more certainty over their role in consultation.

He’ll also be questioning the government over budget estimates for the environmental assessment office.

He said that it appears the EAO is not getting an increase to its budget this year, which Donaldson finds troubling as there is a potential of $32 billion in investments for the north in the next few years. No more funding could create a backlog of permitting, he said.

“Nobody can argue against looking for increased efficiencies but if it comes to cutting corners that’s going to lead to unnecessary delays so we need to have public confidence in the environmental assessment process,” he said.

This was the 23rd year for the Rock Talk conference.

Strong prospects for mineral explorers in Smithers

By Andrew Hudson – Smithers Interior News

Small-town Smithers made an outsized splash at Canada’s largest trade show for mineral explorers last week, sending more people than any B.C. municipality after Vancouver and Victoria.

“It’s a really important part of our economy here and we have some great folks working in that industry,” said Mayor Taylor Bachrach, who pitched in at the Smithers Exploration Group booth for part of the conference.

A record 8,500 people attended the 2012 Minerals Roundup, and by all accounts they had a lot to talk about.

B.C. mines minister Rich Coleman told conference goers that B.C.’s exploration spending hit an estimated $463 million in 2011—a 35 per cent jump from the $341 million spent in 2010.

That meant a busy field season for Smithers companies in the industry, says Anastasia Ledwon, geologist at UTM Exploration Services.

In its second year, UTM has a regular staff of nine and four contractors. But staff peaked at 156 last July and August, she said, making UTM the fifth-largest employer in the Bulkley Valley.

Smithers is a uniquely collaborative place for minerals explorers to work, she added, with many senior geologists to learn from.

Such mentors are critical to an industry still recovering from a decade-long “crash and burn” that started in the late 1990s, she said.

“It was long enough to drive most people out of the industry. So you’ve got a whole bunch of people who want to retire, a whole bunch of students and there’s a big gap.”

A lot of Roundup is swapping business cards, but it does host several technical talks as well.

One that got Ledwon’s attention was on rare earth elements.

As the name suggests, rare earth elements are seldom found in easy-to-mine deposits. But they are key to expensive high-tech equipment such as lasers, computer memory and nuclear batteries.

China controls nearly three-quarters of the world market, but recent geoscience shows B.C. has all the deposits associated with the stuff.

B.C. holds lots of “pleasant surprises” for explorers, Ledwon said, as it’s made from multiple land belts that migrated here from across the Pacific.

“They all came sailing along merrily in geological time, whacked into the coast and got squashed,” she said. “So not only do you have all these different types of base rocks that were created in different ways elsewhere, then they were smashed. That gave them a whole lot of pressure, a whole lot of heat, and altered them.”

But high gold, silver and copper prices are driving the majority of B.C.’s new mineral explorations.

Volatility in those prices can shutter small exploration companies almost overnight, Ledwon said.

To stave off some of that uncertainty, the B.C. Liberal government recently announced new flow-through shares that give investors in exploration a 20 per cent tax break.

Speaking at Roundup, Premier Christy Clark also said her government is cutting red tape to make sure the province doesn’t get in the way of exploration and new mines. Some exploration can go ahead without permits, but building camps, laying grids or any other activity that disturbs the surface requires a Lands Act permit.

In September, an FOI request filed by B.C.’s government employees union found some 6,915 permits were backlogged in the province’s natural resources ministry.

Clark said one category, the notice of work permits, has already been cut to 85 from 229. Late last year, the province announced extra funding to substantially cut the rest of the backlog by the end of the year.

Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson, who also serves as the NDP mines critic, said BC Liberal cuts to frontline staff in the ministry are what led to that backlog in the first place.

“This government getting out of the way has resulted in 8,000 backlogged permits,” he said.

“We’ve had these record-high commodity prices—why is it that we haven’t been able to get some mines going, especially in northwest B.C., for the last ten years?”

Confusion over how First Nations should be consulted over mining and exploration has also hampered the industry, said Donaldson. The Supreme Court of Canada has made clear rulings that show the province holds primary responsibility for such negotations, something he said B.C. Liberals have neglected.

On that file, Premier Clark announced a new land use agreement at Roundup between the Kaska Dena First Nation and the province.

The agreement covers an area of 7.4 hectares of Crown land from the Dease-Liard region to Mackenzie.

A jobs plan announced last fall by the B.C. Liberal government committed promised that eight new mines would open and another nine mines would expand in B.C. by 2015.

No oil pipeline here: Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel in Smithers finds 100% opposition

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/sustainability/2012/01/17/enbridge-northern-gateway-joint-review-panel-smithers-finds-100-opposition

Vancouver Observer
by Carrie Saxifrage
January 17, 2012

It’s unanimous: all of the interveners who gave testimony to the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel in Smithers oppose the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. The Wet’suwet’en, BC Métis and Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson all asserted the Bulkley Valley is shared by different cultures which share a dependence on clean rivers for wild salmon.

Without salmon, none of the communities could thrive. The proposed pipeline puts the wild salmon and other wild food at risk.

The Wet’suwet’en have stood up for their heritage many times in the past.With the Gitxsan First Nation they blockaded logging in their traditional territory in the late 1980s, an action which culminated in the Delgamuukw decision of 1997. In that case, the Supreme Court of Canada held that aboriginal title is protected by the constitution and oral history can be presented as evidence of title.

Twenty two Wet’suwet’en spoke for about 15 minutes each. They identified themselves by chief status, house and clan, matrilineal lineage, patrilineal lineage, grandparents, mother, father, siblings, number of children and grandchildren. The testimonies described a system with no parallel in the law of private property. Each house or clan has rights to different parts of the territory. Hereditary chiefs allocate the resources within the house or clan. So family relationships, in the form of clan and house identity, define a person’s relationship to the land: where they hunt, fish, trap and with whom. Intervener after intervener in effect told the panel, “This land is my identity, my culture, my laws and my language. Without it, I lose who I am.”

Darlene Glaim, a hereditary chief, described the clan and feast system of governance. “Whenever we hold a feast, what happens at the feast becomes law,” she explained. “Without that, we wouldn’t survive Canadian governance.” Extra food is traded and reallocated at the feasts, and hereditary chief names are given. Family members are responsible for providing and sharing wild game, plant medicine, berries and fish. Elders train the youth to become chiefs because they will inherit chief identities as elders pass away.

The interveners’ description of land rights sounded like story telling: memories of going to places where they possessed the right to hunt moose, run a trap line for rabbits, fish for salmon or harvest berries and medicinal plants, with the relatives who were responsible for teaching them about those rights, the skills they needed to get food, and the ways of showing respect.

For example, Chief Ron Mitchell testified that he was born into the House of Many Eyes, of the Small Frog Clan and had a Gitxsan father. Thirty people stood up while he spoke, indicating that he is a chief that speaks for them. He told the panel that of eleven siblings, nine are still alive. He was a translator for the Delgamuukw decision and a writer for the Wet’suwet’en.

He spoke of his late father giving evidence in court. “The lawyers ask us over and over again about our family tree. I would like to know about their family tree. We know ours.” When he was a child and his family moved from camp to camp, they would leave a big fire burning to mark their camp as a place that needed to rest so the wildlife could return. He described the land area his people are caretakers of and how his brothers and cousins bring him wild game. He talked about his uncles and fathers teasing each other about who got more beaver. As a kid, he packed out the moose, beaver, elk and bear that his family hunted. This work made him fast enough to come in 4th out of 300 in a regional cross country race.

Chief Mitchell told a few more stories and ended with how important it was to him that his grandchildren be able to stop anywhere in the territory to get a drink of water and to know where the berry patches are and to eat the food from the territories. “The answer to the topic in question today is a resounding “no” in the name of the House of Many Eyes, the Beaver and Fireweed clans and in the name of my grandchild,” he concluded.

The testimony and stories ran from 9 until 5, with presentations averaging 15 minutes. Every single person told stories of getting food from the wildlife of the land and how this defines their culture. And every single person gave Enbridge a distinct “no.” Many people testified in Wet’suwet’en and had their testimony translated.

Lorena Morris set up a display table with canned huckleberries, oolichan grease, soap berries, devils club tonic and sockeye salmon. She said people were buried where they died in the territory, and the whole area is a graveyard.

Lucy Gagnon said she couldn’t fathom a world without salmon. Samantha Vincent said she shot her first moose at 16 and shot her last one a month ago. Richard Sam said that the river is life blood to his people and every established and ephemeral stream the pipeline passes runs into the river that his people depend on for their existence.

Herb Naziel, wearing a blue blanket with green sequin frog and many coins and eagles, said that the pipeline would destroy his healthy lifestyle and his healthy eating. Debbie Pierre presented a petition that has been submitted to the UN Commission for Human Rights, which led to a discussion of whether it could be admitted because the time for submitting evidence was past.

A child, Tieasha Pierre, said that it is only okay to kill what you will eat and the pipeline could kill many things that could not be eaten. Stanley Namox said, “Chiefs, lady chiefs, children of chiefs, I have a heavy heart about what they want to do on our land. We get our food from our land. This is a big project and it is dangerous.”

Elsie Tiljoe said her grandmother told her to look out for the territory. She wrote a song: “Our territory is our livelihood, our territory is our livelihood. We live off our land. We survive on the wildlife of our land. Law language land. Connection of the land and the animals. Enbridge don’t step on our land. Our territory is our livelihood. Enbridge, do not step on our land.” Sue Alfred talked about falling off a hay truck during an earthquake and described another earthquake during church. She asked how the pipeline would survive an earthquake. Herb Nikal pointed out that the pipeline would go directly through the habitat of the rare Swan Lake grizzly bear silver backs. “Keep your pipeline in your own backyard, we will keep grizzlies in ours,” he told the panel.

George Williams pointed out that the Bulkley Valley is the headwaters for the river system that drains to Prince Rupert and the headwaters for the Fraser River as well. Many people would be damaged by the risk of an oil spill. “Harper should come to our territory and put on a feast and let us know his plans,” Williams suggested. Lillian Lewis said the pipeline was supposed to go through a place known as Footprint, which is the clock of their elders long ago, known from stories about how elders told time when they wanted to go hunting fishing.

Chief Alfonse Gagnon told how, when Enbridge first proposed the pipeline, the Wet’suwet’en researched the oil sands. They flew over the oil sands and talked to the Fort Chippewa people. “We seen the devastation sitting there at oil sands,” he said. “Those big berms by the Athabasca River. We looked at the effects on the people that are living in the area. Their water was poisoned and they were getting strange cancers. It was devastating to our ears. The Athabasca delta produced everything in their life: muskrat, beavers, ducks, provided everything they needed. It was hard to listen to the answers to our questions. I asked, “What is your biggest fear if they keep producing oil sands above you?” They answered, “Our biggest fear is that we will be relocated.”

Chief Gagnon continued, “I would be devastated if we were removed from our land. It is who we are.” He criticized Harper’s comments about radicals who want to stop the project. “I’m worried about the money that Enbridge spent trying to promote the project,” he said. “Who is giving the money for ethical oil? Who gave $80 million to Enbridge to push forward with pipeline? The Prime Minister makes it look like pipeline opponents are making the government victims. It’s important to understand who the victims are. We’re the victims.”

Teresa Tait-Day said “We aren’t worried about the pipeline’s two inches of land. We are worried about our entire relationship with everything. We need to live off the land and sustain ourselves to be who we are. Don’t hold money in the highest regard, hold people in the highest regard.” Adam Gagnon said, “The representatives of Enbridge here have asked for the last eight years. I’ve sat with them in meetings. We’ve told them no. It’s not respectful to keep asking. What part of no do they not understand? They try to sell dreams to people who are poor, that this wealth will make their life better. Give poor people money and their life doesn’t get better it gets worse. We’ve seen that time and time again.”

Gary Ducommun of the Métis Nation of BC also spoke to the importance of wildlife for food. He saw the pipeline threatening moose with new access to their areas.

Doug Donaldson, MLA, characterized the wild salmon of the Bulkley Valley as a national treasure worthy of a fight for protection locally, regionally, provincially, nationally and globally, because there is next to nothing left like the intact ecosystems in northwest. He concluded that, if the JRP considers everything they heard, they will decide that the risks of the Northern Gateway pipeline far outweigh the benefits.

The value of literacy

The natural resources that surround us in Stikine hold great opportunities to provide for our communities.

There are resources like wild salmon that sustain us physically, culturally and economically and will continue to do so if we can manage stocks properly, ensure habitat is maintained and keep our rivers and lakes clean.

Then there are other resources, such as minerals, where extraction is depletive in nature and requires constant exploration to find new deposits in order for employment opportunities to continue beyond the 10 or 20-year life span of a mine.

Resource-based jobs are important in our region, and training is crucial. The college system is a community-based and cost-effective means to deliver programming. The government has been slow to understand this, as demonstrated by the underfunded capital and operating needs of colleges across the province.

Northwest Community College is a prime example, with trades funding declining in the past year and the award-winning School of Exploration and Mining unable to secure multi-year support.

But community-based adult literacy is an even more ignored component of the essential training strategy for rural areas.

One of the government’s great goals was to make the province the “most literate jurisdiction on the continent.” One recent demonstration that this goal is no longer a concern of this government was the cutting of adult and family regional literacy coordinators two years ago. All while more than one million working age adults living in B.C. have inadequate literacy levels for full participation and success in a modern society.

Many working- age adults in our communities do not have adequate literacy levels to benefit from the opportunities that result from the natural resources in our communities’ backyards.

Greater support for community-based adult literacy organizations is essential. A provincial government that really wants local people to benefit from local job opportunities would recognize that. Let’s build a family-friendly future in Stikine.

Donaldson set to present to Joint Review Panel on Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway project

Jan. 5 2012 (SMITHERS, B.C.) – The Joint Review Panel for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project will begin its hearings this month and Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson is scheduled early in the process. Donaldson is registered as an intervenor and will be presenting to the panel on January 16, 2012, in Smithers.

“I look forward to presenting in front of the Joint Review Panel,” said Donaldson. “I’ve monitored Enbridge’s pipeline proposal since before 2005 when I was a municipal councilor with the Village of Hazelton, and now as the MLA for Stikine. I’ve considered the project carefully and have not been swayed from my belief that the risks outweigh the benefits to the people of Stikine and of the Northwest.”

The Enbridge proposal includes two parallel 1,150-kilometre pipelines from the tar sands in northern Alberta to Kitimat. One pipeline would carry between 400,000 to 1,000,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the tar sands to the BC coast, while the second pipeline would carry 150,000 barrels a day of condensate, a chemical and petroleum mixture used to dilute tar sands crude oil extracted so that it can travel by pipeline. Tankers would be necessary to transport the pipeline’s contents of oil and condensate to and from the United States, China, India and other markets.

“There is no doubt industrial development activity on the landbase in the Northwest is part of what supports local residents, the province and Canada economically,” said the Stikine MLA. “There are examples of responsible industrial development and community economic development we need to expand and pursue that don’t put at great risk our economic, cultural, social and environmental future.”

Based on the information provided during the review process, the three-person panel will issue an environmental assessment report which will contain conclusions, recommendations and rationale. Once the federal government has responded to the report, the Panel will make a final decision on whether or not to approve the project under the National Energy Board Act.

Contact: Doug Donaldson, (250) 505-7785

A time for reflection

The Christmas season allows us to be reflective in this oftentimes fast-paced world.

And one of the things we can reflect on is living in northwest B.C. We can be thankful for the abundant wealth of the natural world that surrounds us — the fresh air, clean water and undepleted soils that gives rise to amazing forests, abundant wildlife, and wild salmon. We are also lucky to live in a region rich with non-living materials as well – the rocks that contain minerals sought by others living in this province and elsewhere.

This natural richness of the living and non-living world that surrounds us provides the basis for another reflection we can be thankful for – the freedoms we enjoy. Compared to many societies, we have an incredible number of personal freedoms. The freedom to speak out without fear of persecution; the right to free assembly; the freedom of religious and spiritual belief; and the right not to be discriminated against based on sexual orientation, gender, race or age.

The link between the natural richness of our ecosystems and the freedoms we enjoy lies in the way people share in the wealth created by what exists in our own backyards. In many countries only a few benefit from the natural resources, while the vast majority live in poverty. The past year we have seen people rise up against this inequality — the Arab spring and Occupy movement are prime examples.

In B.C., we are not immune to this growing gap between rich and poor. A Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report found that the top 10 per cent of B.C. families now earn more than the entire bottom half of families – a trend 30 years in the making.This inequality trend must be addressed by our provincial government in order for all to enjoy a more productive and just life.

Healthy ecosystems and the freedoms we enjoy are things that we can be thankful for during this Christmas season. Addressing inequality is the manner in which we all can enjoy those attributes now and into the future.