TUESDAY MAY 21, 2013
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COAL MINE PROPOSAL
Raven rejected
Company can re-submit to enviro assessment office JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office announced Thursday it rejected the application for Compliance Energy’s proposed Raven Coal Mine near Buckley Bay. In a letter to Compliance president and CEO John Tapics, the BCEAO said “the application does not contain the required information and (the BCEAO) has decided not to accept the application for detailed review.” The BCEAO also released a 114-page document “that identifies the major information requirements that EAO considers not to have been adequately addressed . . . should Compliance wish to revise and resubmit its application to EAO for evaluation . . . we request that Compliance first incorporate into the application the information identified (in that 114-page document).” The NEWS could not reach anyone at Compliance for comment Friday afternoon. The Western Wilderness Committee has been vocal in its opposition to the mine throughout the assessment process. “The Environmental Assessment Office has acknowledged the serious gaps in information in this application and sent the company back to the drawing board,” said Torrance Coste, the WWC’s Vancouver Island Campaigner. “The decision serves to highlight this company’s utter lack of commitment to the local communities, First Nations and our shared environment, and is just another indication that this mine doesn’t belong on Vancouver Island.”
JOHN HARDING PHOTO
Hayley Charnock, an 18-year-old student at Ballenas Secondary and an intern with The NEWS, voted for the first time Tuesday in Parksville.
Voting statistics look familiar JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
Much was different in 2009 when Parksville Qualicum Beach voters cast ballots in the last provincial election prior to the odds-defying win by the B.C. Liberals last week. Gordon Campbell led the Liberals into the 2009 election and it was Carole James with the NDP. Locally that year, Ron Cantelon was looking for his second term as a
B.C. Liberal, and Leanne Salter carried the NDP banner. Despite those differences in names on the ballots and in their leaders’ offices, the numbers from last Tuesday’s election are surprisingly similar to those in 2009. Cantelon won the Parksville Qualicum constituency for the Liberals in 2009 with 13,265 votes, which worked out to 51 per cent of all ballots cast. Last week, Liberal Michelle Stilwell won with 13,431, 50 per See MORE THAN, page A4 cent of all votes cast.
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