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MARCH 2014
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Ottawa rejects Prosperity Bill Phillips and Tom Fletcher editor@pgfreepress.com The federal government has turned down Taseko Mines’ application for a gold mine near Williams Lake for a second time, citing “environmental effects that cannot be mitigated.” The decision comes after repeated efforts by the B.C. government to lobby for approval for the project, and a court challenge by Taseko to the federal assessment that it said did not take into account the efforts made to protect the watershed from tailings from the open-pit copper and gold project. NDP leader Adrian Dix said it was the right decision and that the province handled the issue very poorly. “It’s the right ruling,” Dix said during a stop in Prince George last week. “Premier Clark and the provincial government has been embarrassed here. When she became premier, the first thing she did was call Stephen Harper and ask for a reversal.” Dix pointed out this is the second time the project has been rejected. “You have to be pretty much on the fringe of things to be on the right of Stephen Harper on the environment,” Dix said. Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett said Thursday the project would have created 1,200 construction jobs and 500 permanent jobs that would help the region recover from the decline in the forest industry from pine beetle impact. “I think the federal government has made a big mistake,” Barnett said. Federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq issued a statement late Wednesday saying the decision was made “based on the best available scientific evidence while balancing economic and environmental considerations.” Taseko CEO Russell Hallbauer said the company accepted the federal government’s 2010 invitation to reapply, and committed $300 million to redesign the project in response to the first rejection. In a statement issued Thursday, Hallbauer said the company “fundamentally disagrees” with the decision. The Environmental Assessment panel made its decision against the proposed mine based on a report that Taseko says was flawed. New Prosperity can be built to a high standard of environmental integrity, he said, including the full protection of Fish Lake. “We are not alone in our disappointment,” Hallbauer said. “Many others, including the Government of British
File Photo An ore truck at Taseko’s Gibraltar Mine, an open pit copper-gold mine similar to the Prosperity proposal.
Columbia and the thousands of Cariboo residents who have worked hard to support New Prosperity, will be similarly discouraged. We will continue to support the excellent work of our 700 employees at Gibraltar, Canada’s second largest open pit copper mine and the largest employer in the Cariboo region.” Hallbauer said Taseko will proceed with a judicial review applied for in December, arguing that the federal review panel used the wrong design for its updated waste rock storage facility. The panel concluded that the project was likely to cause significant adverse effects on fish and fish habitat, wetlands and aboriginal interest in the Fish Lake area. B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett made two trips to Ottawa since the decision to assure federal officials that the tailings control proposed for New Prosperity Mine is similar to other mines operating in B.C. B.C. enlisted John Meech, a mine engineering professor at the University of B.C., who said the compact soil liner proposed by Taseko has been proven effective at the company’s nearby Gibraltar Mine and Mount Polley Mine, operated by
Imperial Metals northeast of Williams Lake. Bennett said Thursday the question of the tailings pond will likely be resolved in court, and the province has a proven ability to regulate mines. “We know how to make sure that the design is such that it’s not going to contaminate surrounding groundwater, or a lake that’s two kilometres away,” Bennett said. First Nations leaders are also happy with the decision. “We are extremely pleased that the federal government accepted the conclusions of the second federal review panel and clearly recognized that the tweaking of TML’s original proposal did nothing to mitigate the potential for an environmental and cultural disaster,” said Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit (FNS) political executive. “We have seen two federal review panel processes and two strong rejections. It is undoubtedly time for TML, as well as the federal and provincial governments, to clearly recognize this is the end of the road for this proposed project once and for all.”
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