To the Editor,
One year after the government rejected Compliance Energy’s Raven coal mine application, the company has recently missed their own self-imposed deadline for re-submission of their Raven coal mine application to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
Last April the company failed to include application information based on their own self-imposed application guidelines for Raven Coal. They did not address operational issues that are a focus of concern by many in communities that stretch from one side of Vancouver Island to the other, like the coal port here, with enclosed coal storage that is susceptible to spontaneous combustion and explosion, too close to residential neighbourhoods.
It’s not the first time Compliance Energy has failed with mining projects and now it’s looking dismal for Raven Coal with empty promises and failed applications.
Compliance plans a “longwall mining” approach beneath the highly irrigated surface and subsurface of the Comox Valley located above the pristine waters of Baynes Sound that celebrate supplying high quality shellfish featured in top restaurants around the world. More than 600 hard-working people rely on these jobs.
For those still hoping for this mine to create jobs, there have been several B.C. mine closures recently and HD Mining International still wants to import up to 480 Chinese workers for its proposed Murray River coal mine.
HD Mining’s rationale, which was supported by both the federal and provincial governments, is that only Mandarin-speaking Chinese understand the company’s system of “longwall mining”.
Until Compliance can produce credible information to the federal and provincial regulators, as well as our communities who reject the Raven Coal mine concept in general due to the abundance of scientifically proven significant negative impacts caused by coal mining worldwide, and until their claims that the coal mine will benefit local economies, their declarations remain conjecture.
Stacey Gaiga,
Port Alberni
