Lands – Nalaine Morin

Lands

Director Report

Nalaine Morin

Lands Director It has truly been a privilege and an honour to work for my Nation for the past fifteen years in various roles supporting land stewardship and the recognition and protection of Tahltan rights and interests.

I have had the opportunity to work with many people from the Nation as well as representatives from government and industry who supported the work of the Tahltan Central Government (TCG) in ensuring that we were meeting the principles of our 1987 Resource Development Policy, other important Tahltan laws and the interests of our Tahltan people. I hope that the work we have done over the years continues to be a strong foundation for the department and the TCG as our lands and resources are an important part of who we are as Tahltans.

I am pleased to provide an update on Lands Department activities including our work on the Tahltan Stewardship Initiative (TSI), administration, lands governance, and major projects. It continues to be busy. I thank everyone on the team for their work on these projects. TAHLTAN STEWARDSHIP INITIATIVE

• The TSI Steering Committee met in Iskut at the Bear

Paw Lodge in June for a retreat. We participated in several group activities and discussed next steps for projects.

• The TSI team have added a new Youth Stewardship

Officer. Makayla Russell started on July 26th with a project orientation and an orientation to the Lands

Department. She participated in several project related meetings for Tahltan Heritage Resources

Environmental Assessment Team (THREAT) and the TSI.

• Interim reporting for the Canada Nature Funds grant was completed, submitted to Canada and accepted by Canada, fulfilling some of our grant requirements.

The grant supports the TSI project which includes the Tahltan Stewardship Plan, the Indigenous

Protected and Conserved Areas and other projects in collaboration with other departments within the

TCG.

GOVERNMENT TO GOVERNMENT

• An information sharing agreement is being negotiated with the Province. This agreement template was drafted with the 3 Nations Working

Group and will provide specific guidance and confidentiality measures for Tahltan knowledge shared with the Province.

• The Lands Department is working on an updated system to track referrals processed and is developing dashboard reports to manage the resourcing required for referrals. We are working on a permitting efficiency pilot with the Ministry of

Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation.

• The project will lead to better certainty for Tahltan decision making and improved processing times for referrals.

• The Lands Department is working with the Province on identifying areas in Tahltan Territory for Tahltan conservation. Meetings will be occurring with

Tahltan community members to help identify conservation areas that are reflective of Tahltan community needs.

• An Order in Council (OIC) under Section 7 of the

Environment and Land Use Act established in 2020, amended in 2021 and extended to 2023 (new OIC) to defer permitting placer and hard-rock jade operations. In 2022, through the Placer/Jade

Collaborative Working group with BC, Kaska and

Liard First Nations, a recommendations report was developed. The recommendations are currently under review, and they include: Information sharing, revenue, reclamation, access, areas for restriction of activities, compliance, and clean-up of legacy sites.

MAJOR PROJECTS

• Galore Creek Project: The Tahltan Heritage

Resources Environmental Assessment Team (THREAT) has participated in a series of workshops with the company on aspects of the project including tailings impoundment, regulatory process, road alignment, and water quality.

Through the workshops, THREAT members made recommendations to the Galore Creek team and these recommendations are currently being addressed by Galore.

• Eskay Creek Revitalization Project: A project description is close to being finalized. The

Section 7 Agreement has been approved and work is underway to implement the Agreement including setting up the first senior officials table meeting. The first decision for the environmental assessment process will be the “readiness decision”.

Before the decision, a draft process order and the application information requirements document must be completed. Both documents are currently in development. Community meetings are being planned in the near future.

• Red Chris Mine: THREAT is reviewing regulatory applications for the thickener and pre-production of the mine. These applications are for activities or changes to the project that will improve overall water management and support works required for the block cave. Design work for the block cave mine is ongoing. Newcrest is undertaking work to develop an application to amend the Environmental

Assessment (EA) Certificate and associated permits required for the block cave mine. The EA process will have a consent agreement negotiated for the

TCG.

• KSM Project: Seabridge is developing the Glacier

Creek fish habitat area at Glacier Creek. The

Seabridge environmental team provides an update to the Lands Department and representatives from the Fisheries Department on a monthly basis. • Bruce Jack Mine: The environmental team from Bruce Jack met with the Lands Department to provide a project update and a wildlife management plan update. Currently, work is underway to upgrade the road at Bruce Jack as well as a number of the camp locations.

• Silvertip Mine: Couer filed an amendment application for the Silvertip

Mine to return to operations. A team of THREAT members led by

Shawn Ducharme have reviewed and provided comments to a number of permit amendments including the Mines Act and effluent permits for the mine.

• Kutcho Project: Monthly project update meetings have been established with the Kutcho environmental team and representatives from both the Tahltan and Kaska Nations. A draft technical agreement which will outline a joint approach to technical work on the project is being developed.

FORESTRY

• Forest Woodland License was issued in early 2019 to Tahltan Nation.

The woodland license area is managed through a joint venture between the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) and

Northpac, called Tahltan Forestry.

• Tahltan Forestry worked with the Lands Department on a forest stewardship plan in 2019. The plan incorporated Tahltan values and exceeds provincial requirements.

• In 2021, the work was done to establish the first two cutting blocks.

Two cutting permits were approved.

• Harvesting logs from these blocks started in 2022. The two current blocks are near Bobquin. Tahltan Forestry is harvesting from the first block and will transition to the second block in the fall.

• Logs are going to Houston, BC to Canfor for processing. Wood is also being exported out of Stewart.