John Dressler, Williams Lake chapter
The Globe and Mail reports that, “Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency has asked Taseko Mines to provide more details about its revamped proposal for the controversial Prosperity Mine (at Fish Lake), saying a revised description the company submitted in February was incomplete.”
TIMELINE:
– “The B.C. government approved the Prosperity project – about 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake – in January of 2010.”
– In March 2010, Council of Canadians water campaigner Meera Karuananthan, British Columbia-Yukon organizer Harjap Grewal, and Williams Lake chapter activist John Dressler spoke against the Propserity Mine at the CEAA panel hearings on the proposal.
– “In November 2010, Ottawa said the copper-gold mine, as then proposed, could not go ahead, based on significant adverse effects that included destroying Fish Lake, a picturesque trout-bearing lake that would be drained to build the mine.”
– “(In February 2011), Taseko submitted a revised proposal to CEAA that the company said would save Fish Lake – and add about $300-million to the cost of the mine, pushing it over the $1-billion mark.”
– “(On Tuesday, the new British Columbia premier Christy) Clark raised the issue of the mine in her first meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying it was important for families and the provincial economy.”
The Council of Canadians continues to oppose the Prosperity Mine. David Williams, president of the Friends of the Nemaiah Valley, has written that, “It is no surprise that the Tsilhqot’in National Government, and many others, too, continue to oppose the very idea of Prosperity mine, whether it destroys Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) or not. However such a mine were to be developed, the impacts on the local ecosystem and Tsihqot’in culture and society would be devastating. …The central fact that continues to elude government, the corporate sector, and especially the mainstream media, is that aboriginal rights and the sovereignty issue that underlies them must be recognized. …If the mine, indeed any resource extraction, were to proceed without prior consultation and accommodation, and we believe even permission, from the First Nation on whose lands the resources are situated, an illegal act will have occurred.”
To see an overview of the Council of Canadians campaign to protect Fish Lake, please go to http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=5187.