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VOL. 27 NO. 48
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Tahltan to cast votes on mine deal
Bylaw officer approved By JOSH MASSEY THE DAYS of shooting off fireworks on your back lawn without consequence may be over as city council has decided to use a portion of its surplus to hire a full-time bylaw officer. The position was reduced to a 10-hour per week function during recessionary times in 2005 by combining bylaw enforcement duties with those of the city’s animal control officer. But demand for bylaw enforcement services for such things as parking violations has now grown to the point a full-time officer is needed, city council decided at a March 12 session. Council also considered a letter from Inspector Dana Hart of the Terrace RCMP detachment recommending the creation of the full-time bylaw officer position to free up officers from having to take care of city issues. He said the number of calls relating to city bylaw enforcement to the detachment received is untenable as it stands with 373 bylaw complaints registered in 2014, 262 in 2013 and 365 in 2012. When the position was cut in 2005, responsibility for bylaw enforcement was spread beyond the animal control officer and tacked onto the duties of various other city workers. “With a full-time bylaw compliance officer, staff will be able to focus on their departments, which is really important considering how busy our Development Services, Leisure Services, Public Works, and RCMP departments are,” said mayor Carol Leclerc. Details still need to be worked out.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2015
JOSH MASSEY PHOTO
■■ Bagging the big catch SHELDON DENNIS scoops up oolichan fish in a bowl while others prepared to seal them in bags out back of the Terrace Nisga’a Urban Local office on Lakelse Ave. March 11. Rich in protein, the oolichan taken from the Nass River were distributed to about 100 local families. Oolichan can be dried, smoked, or canned and also rendered down to a rich oil.
MEMBERS OF the Tahltan Nation are to vote next month on a comprehensive agreement providing employment and other economic benefits arising from the Red Chris copper and gold mine located on their traditional territory. The balloting, from April 1618 to be conducted in person, by phone or online, follows a series of community meetings held close to the mine’s location in Dease Lake and Iskut north on Hwy37 North and in Terrace and elsewhere. Details of the proposed agreement, resulting from a prolonged period of negotiations, are being kept confidential, said Steve Robertson, a vice-president with mine owner Imperial Metals. “It includes consideration for jobs, training, education, contracting opportunities and revenue sharing,” he said. The proposed deal, which Robertson is calling an impacts benefit agreement, is being referred to by the Tahltan Central Council, the overall governing body of the Tahltan, as a co-management agreement. Approval by the Tahltan would continue a series of similar agreements with companies who have operations within Tahltan traditional territory. That list includes Calgary energy company AltaGas which spent $1 billion on three run-of-river hydroelectric projects along the Iskut River. Power from those projects flows into BC Hydro’s Northwest Transmission Line. The Tahltan also voted in favour of a benefits agreement tied to the power line crossing into Tahltan traditional territory. The benefits agreement aside, the Tahltan still need to approve of the copper and gold mine’s tailings facility before the provincial government will issue Imperial a
final permit paving the way for full production. Earlier this year, the province gave Imperial a temporary permit allowing it to begin processing ore as a test of the mine’s facilities. Imperial then began trucking out concentrate bearing copper and gold to the port at Stewart for eventual transport. “It’s a real watershed moment for us. It’s been a very long road to production at Red Chris and we are already there,” said Steve Robertson of the first gold and copper shipments. “We continue to work very closely with the Tahltan regarding this permit and plan to have community meetings in the Tahltan community sometime in April,” said Robertson. “This will allow us to address details of our application with the Tahltan people and their consultants in advance of the issuance of the final Environment Management Act permit,” he said. Some members of the Tahltan community have for years expressed worries about the environmental impact of the mine which has a capital cost of $643 million. Those worries at times grew into a roadblock of the mine mounted by Tahltan and others. One happened last summer after the failure of the tailings pond at another Imperial copper mine, Mount Polley in the Cariboo. Imperial then agreed to pay for a tailings pond design review by a company chosen by the Tahltan Central Council. Despite the review finding the soil quality under the Red Chris tailings facility to be a potential issue, the ministry of the environment said it is a far cry from Mount Polley where the underlying composition of its tailings pond was a factor in its failing.
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