Wednesday, October 16, 2013
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Yukon News
Ian Stewart/Yukon News
Lise Farynowski smiles after getting her flu shot from community health nurse Brenda Dedon at the Whitehorse Health Clinic on Tuesday. A limited number of Flu Mist nasal spray immunizations are available this year for children and youth, at Whitehorse flu clinic locations only.
Government flip flops on exploration project Ashley Joannou
tory said environmental risks could be mitigated. The Chisana herd has consisted he Yukon government has of about 700 animals since 2005. The changed its mind about a minherd is in Yukon and Alaska on the ing exploration project south of Klutlan Plateau and near the headBeaver Creek. waters of the White River. Despite originally approving White River First Nation took the the plan by Tarsis Resources Ltd., government to court. officials now say exploration cannot In a July 5 ruling this year, Justice go forward. Ron Veale ruled the government did Meanwhile the White River First not properly consult with the First Nation is calling for a ban of all stak- Nation. He ordered the government ing in the First Nation’s traditional to consult further before deciding to territory. issue the licence or not. The hotly contested project pitted The consultation took place Sept. the government against the First Na23, according to government docution and led to a battle in the Yukon ments. Supreme Court. In a new decision document Tarsis had applied for a five-year released Friday, the government now Class 3 exploration permit. The says it will not approve the plan. work would have required, among This time, the territory says the other things, heavy machinery, new environmental impact of the explotrails, line cutting and trenching. Last year, the Yukon Environmen- ration could not be mitigated. “The evaluation report concluded tal and Socio-economic Assessment that significant adverse environmenBoard recommended the project tal and socio-economic effects that not be allowed to proceed because could not be mitigated in relation it would have significant adverse to wildlife and wildlife habitat and effects on wildlife, specifically the First Nation traditional land use and Chisana caribou herd. The First Nation also opposed the culture could occur if the project proceeded,” the decision document application. states. At first the government chose to “In the consultation meeting held go against the assessment board’s on September 23, representatives of recommendation and allow the White River discussed openly and project to move forward. In its original decision, the terrifrankly with the (government) the News Reporter
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importance of the Chisana caribou to their culture. They also spoke in detail about the importance of the land where the project is proposed to occur and noted that displacement from this area – distinct from other areas in their asserted traditional territory – would have adverse impacts on their culture.” In an interview this morning, Robert Holmes, Yukon’s director of mineral resources for the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, said a lot of new information regarding the caribou came out in the year and a half between the two decisions. “The project is kind of remarkable for the information about caribou that came out after the seeking views and information period closed,” he said. When the government first considered its position, biologists thought the caribou herd could be managed through regulations, said Holmes. “We were finding enough information about caribou that you could, through spatial changes and timing windows, deal with the concerns.” Since that time, he said, new data has come in including more complete collaring data and new reports that weren’t available the first time. During the time between deci-
sions, a different project, this time by Teck Resources, was approved for land just to the southeast of the Tarsis project. The cumulative effects of the two projects were also considered in denying Tarsis’s plans this time, Holmes said. In a statement from the White River First Nation, Deputy Chief Dwayne Broeren criticized the government’s handling of the situation. “It is a shame that YG wasted all this time and money fighting for a company that disregarded WRFN interests blatantly. However, we are pleased that ultimately they listened to WRFN. WRFN seeks a new relationship with Canada and YG that reflects our unique status of unextinguished aboriginal rights and title to our traditional territory.” Questions to the government about how much money was spent on the legal wrangling were not answered in time for the News’ deadline. The First Nation calls for the banning of all staking in WRFN traditional territory “while consultation and accommodation issues are being resolved with government.” “The WRFN have informed YG and Canada that they are reasserting the traditional territory maps provided to government before the UFA Land Claim process began with
WRFN, and long before mineral discoveries were made on their lands,” the statement reads. “WRFN took this step after conducting extensive traditional land use and historical land usage studies of their people’s history.” White River points to this case, and also a recent win by the Ross River First Nation, as a sign that things are changing. “The WRFN win in court over YG and Tarsis, as well as RRDC killing ‘free entry’ in court, show that the old ways of doing business in YT for mining are over. WRFN is not interested in a UFA-based land claim but we are willing to negotiate a new relationship with government that reflects the modern reality and our unextinguished title,” WRFN Land Co-ordinator Janet VanderMeer said in the statement. “WRFN is re-asserting our land claim to our entire traditional territory and we have the evidence to support this. We hope the premier respects what was learned from the Tarsis fiasco and will join WRFN in now establishing a more productive process to resolve our issues that abandons their confrontational previous approaches.” Marc Blythe, president and CEO of Tarsis, said his company was still reviewing the government’s decision. Contact Ashley Joannou at ashleyj@yukon-news.com