Editor:
In response to Charlie Wyse’s March 10 letter, How will Clark address First Nations Concerns on Prosperity mine, Tribune Viewpoints:
Bang on, Charlie. You speak for many people who care that Canada remains a civil society that respects human rights.
Land claims or whatever you want to call it means that First Nations are included in resource-development decisions from the ground up, not after the fact. Canadians need to insist on that.
Sadly the provincial government is all too ready to rubber stamp anything with a dollar sign in front of it. From an environmental point of view, this new footprint Taseko is proposing needs to be examined thoroughly. Important questions need to be answered. For instance, if the lake is going to be preserved, how will access to this lake and its environmental integrity be preserved?
How will Mother Nature, industry and other users of the land actually coexist in this region? Where will the new tailings pond be? What studies have been done to ensure that this new footprint is environmentally sound?
There are too many important environmental, cultural and spiritual values at stake in this world-class pristine landscape. It cannot and should not be trashed out lightly.
If Christy Clark wants to promote Prosperity mine, then at the very least she should insist that a new Joint Panel Review be established that includes the federal and provincial governments and First Nations. Yes, this means starting from the ground up again.
But as some mine proponents have pointed out, many studies have already been done that won’t have to be repeated.
Quite obviously new scientific work is needed to establish a threshold of trust that all parties can have confidence in.
Sage Birchwater
Williams Lake
