Editor:
I went to my first Imperial Metals Mount Polley Mine meeting.
They gave an informative talk on what has been done, is being done and what will be done later to clean up and fix the damages caused by the dam breaking.
Thanks to Mr. Gainer for saying what he did about Mount Polley mine. His speech was the only one that made sense.
An environmentalist and fisheries person asked the same questions over and didn’t seem to understand the answers given.
One wanted to know what’s going to be done to compensate local residents about their water and health from stress.
They were told there is free water available for them and filter systems would be installed for people taking water from Quesnel Lake or River.
Thirty years ago I was watching the salmon run in the Horsefly River and asked a fisheries guy if the salmon that came up with parts missing on them, which I hadn’t seen before then, was caused by the pollution in the Fraser River.
He said he couldn’t say and walked away.
That told me I was right, so don’t blame the mine runoff for polluting the Fraser or fish.
We aren’t allowed to eat tuna from the ocean more than one or two times a week because of the ocean pollution.
People have a short memory of what Williams Lake and area was like when Gibraltar Mine and Mount Polley Mine weren’t in operation.
Likely was almost a ghost town and there was no employment. People were leaving this province to go to Alberta for work.
The mine disaster wasn’t an environmental catastrophe.
It never ruined homes or took lives. It could have been a lot worse.
The salmon will keep spawning and Hazeltine Creek will be better than it was before.
Quesnel Lake will still be the same as it always has been, the logs are being cleaned up, the beaches, too.
Things can’t be done overnight but they will get it done. People should think positive not negative about Mount Polley Mine and what good it has done for people.
People should back them up and let them get done, and in operation to employ people again.
People living in Likely aren’t the only ones under stress, a lot of unemployed people are too.
Lil Laflamme
150 Mile House