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Council of Canadians skeptical of task force promoting Energy East, fracking and Sisson Brook mine


Nashwaak River

The Sisson Brook mine would be built at the headwaters of the Nashwaak River

The Council of Canadians is skeptical about a new group that will seek to attract resource extraction projects to New Brunswick.

Global News reports, “The new natural resources task force includes companies such as TransCanada, Sisson Partnership and Ignite Fredericton. Greg Davidson, community relations manager with the Sission Brook Mine project, says the force is about having an open dialogue. …Joel Richardson of the Canadian Manufactures and Exporters Association is concerned that the provincial government has stalled on encouraging some resource development [presumably following its decision to implement a moratorium on fracking in the province].”

The article highlights, “Mark D’Arcy of the Council of Canadians is skeptical of the initiative. ‘It really is a stacked lobby group to promote Energy East, Sisson Brook and to promote shale gas’, he said. D’Arcy would like to see the group include representatives from solar, wind and geothermal industries alongside those in forestry, mining and manufacturing.”

The CBC explains that Sisson Brook is a proposed “open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine [that] would be built on 12.5 square kilometres of Crown land near Napadogan, north of Fredericton, which [the] St. Mary’s [First Nation] says is Maliseet territory.” St. Mary’s Chief Candice Paul has stated, “We assert Aboriginal title to the area where the mine is being proposed …The mine would destroy this part of our territory, it would never be the same again.” The NB Media Co-op has reported, “The mine, if it goes ahead, will be dug out of the headwaters of the Nashwaak River, 100km (by road) north of Fredericton upstream from the Village of Stanley.”

The Council of Canadians campaigns against the Energy East pipeline, fracking and destructive mining projects.

 

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