I was born in B.C. and have lived here all of my life. Until about 10 years ago, I thought the provincial government tried to balance the environmental health of our province with the need to create jobs.
That belief was shattered following the Mount Polley disaster and how it was handled by the provincial Liberals. Mount Polley is a copper and gold mine located near Likely in the Cariboo. When the mine’s four-square-kilometre tailings dam failed in August 2014, roughly 25 billion litres of contaminated mine tailings were released into Polley Lake.
The tailings contained selenium, arsenic and other mining metals. The spill flooded Polley Lake, its outflow, Hazeltine Creek, and continued into nearby Quesnel Lake and the Cariboo River. These are trout and salmon bearing waters.
This was the largest tailings dam collapse in Canadian history. One might expect a strong response from our provincial and federal governments to a disaster of this size.
Neither the provincial government, nor the federal government, has laid a single charge and no fines have been levied.
B.C. is supposed to have polluter-pay rules so why isn’t the polluter being made to pay?
B.C.’s auditor general concluded that the provincial government’s enforcement efforts were inadequate.
“The compliance and enforcement activities of both the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of the Environment are not set up to protect the province from environmental risks,” says the auditor general.
The Liberals failed to enforce the rules in their rush to create jobs. As a result, B.C. taxpayers will pay the $40 million cleanup bill. I live in B.C. because it is beautiful. I have learned that clean water, air and land are not things that we can take for granted.
I am hopeful the new NDP/Green government will work hard to enforce the rules and uphold the regulations needed to keep B.C. beautiful.
Jane Weixl
Vernon
