TUESDAY APRIL 1, 2014
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RAVEN COAL PROJECT
Application still on hold Compliance Energy CEO says he will meet with province in April JOHN HARDING
editor@pqbnews.com
Another self-imposed deadline has passed for Compliance Energy as it considers re-submitting an application for a coal mining operation less than 50 km from downtown Qualicum Beach. In January, Compliance CEO Steve Ellis told The NEWS his company would re-submit its application for the Raven Coal Mine to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) by the end of March. On Monday, Ellis confirmed that wasn’t going to happen. “Certainly we haven’t gone away,” said Ellis. “We intend to re-submit. It’s a process we’re going through and it’s evolving and it makes it difficult to put a timeline on it. We have meetings arranged with the (provincial) government in April and Certainly we haven’t we will see how that leads with the regone away submission.” In May of 2013, the EAO rejected COMPLIANCE CEO STEVE ELLIS the application for the proposed mine near Buckley Bay, saying “the application does not contain the required information and (the EAO) has decided not to accept the application for detailed review.” After that rejection, Compliance officials said they planned to re-submit the application within a couple of months. In early January, Ellis said that submission will be made by “the end of the first quarter” of 2104. On its website (www.theravenproject.ca), the company says it expects to hire up to 200 workers during construction and create up to 350 full-time jobs. The underground operation would be centred about five kilometres west of the Buckley Bay ferry terminal and the coal would be stored and shipped out of Port Alberni. Compliance has said three trucks an hour, 24 hours a day, will carry the coal from the mine to Port Alberni. “The benefits to the economy of the area are tremendous,” Ellis said in January. Ellis also said he met informally late last year with Parksville-Qualicum MLA Michelle Stilwell and B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak. See COAL WATCH, page A7
JOHN HARDING PHOTO
SUPER HEROES IN PARKSVILLE: Under sunny skies, a group of super heroes did a walkabout in Parksville on Sunday afternoon. Caught here at city hall were Storm (Jessica Nemlander), a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Lisa Noble, a burlesque performer who says she also goes by her stage name, Goldilocks) and Wonder Woman (Becky Baldwin).
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