Re-bid mine proposal should be rejected, says nation

The Tsilhqot’in Nation has called on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and the federal government to reject the re-bid Prosperity mine project. “The company is on record admitting this new option is worse than the one that was rejected last year, and a ... review panel has already agreed with that assessment,” said Chief Joe Alphonse, chair of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, which represents six First Nations. “To proceed any further will place an unjustified burden on us and on taxpayers and will demonstrate the excessive influence that this company, its lobbyists and hired guns have on government.”

Xeni Gwet’in Chief Marilyn Baptiste said it was obvious there are no grounds for wasting more time on a project that has already been deemed worse than its rejected predecessor.

“This company’s attempt to ignore the myriad devastating impacts from either version of this project tells us that they have learned nothing from the previous rejection, or about how to respect our rights and culture.”

Last summer, the agency’s review panel report stated that Taseko Mines Ltd.’s proposed Prosperity mine would have devastating and immitigable impacts on fisheries and wildlife and on existing and future First Nations rights. Ottawa emphatically rejected the project, with then-environment minister Jim Prentice calling the panel’s report “scathing” and “probably the most condemning” he had ever read.