Editor:
Re: Tribune report on the trip to Ottawa by First Nations leaders last week.
Such efforts are necessary to counter intense lobbying efforts by Taseko Mines as it tries to influence the federal government to approve its latest mine proposal. Taseko’s efforts are bolstered by no fewer than three influential Ottawa lobbying companies.
The latest proposal is merely a slightly modified version of one already rejected by government, and previously cited by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and Taseko itself as even more damaging than that rejected last year.
Taseko claims this “new” plan will save Teztan Biny/Fish Lake, but it will still destroy Little Fish Lake and Fish Creek where 81 per cent of the trout spawn. According to Taseko’s own engineering VP, it will eventually contaminate Teztan Biny, too. Additionally, the ore lies all around and under Teztan. Even Taseko admits it will have to drain and destroy Teztan if the mine goes for 33 years. At year 21, half the deposit will still be in the ground. Does anyone seriously believe it would not go another 12 years to extract that ore?
Taseko’s wildly extravagant claims of an economic renaissance in B.C. from this mine further undermine its credibility, based as they are on highly speculative projections and assumptions which only the most wishful thinkers could believe have validity in our uncertain world.
The reality is that this mine, as Chief Stewart Phillip has said, is the wrong mine in the wrong place with the wrong company.
David Williams
President
Friends of the
Nemaiah Valley