"Content disabled"So much for free speech in CBC as a Cabinet Minister gives a big Speech in Fat Fred City after Trudeau The Younger changed her mandate in his attempt at a second mandate for himself N'esy Pas?
Latest Sisson Mine approval leaves First Nations, conservation groups uneasy
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David Amos
Content disabled
"Content disabled" Yea Right
So much for free speech in CBC just before a Cabinet Minister gives a big Speech in Fat Fred City a week after Mr Prime Minister Trudeau The Younger changed her mandate before his attempt at a second mandate for himself N'esy Pas?
On July 15, 2019, legislation dissolving Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and formally establishing the mandates of 2 new departments, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (CIRNAC) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), came into effect. CIRNAC and ISC will continue to work seamlessly together to ensure there are no interruptions to inquiries, delivery of services or relationships with partners. Contact names and numbers remain the same. The two websites will be updated accordingly in the next few months.
David Amos
Content disabled
There are no coincidences Methinks Mr Perley wants to tease the "Powers that Be" who are meeting in Fat Fred City for the next 3 days N'esy Pas?
Gary Barratt everything is uneasy . show us the money !
David Amos
Reply to @Gary Barratt: BINGO
Ben Haroldson from the pic, it looks like he has help in that fight.
David Amos
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Methinks we all should be so lucky N'esy Pas?
Ray Bungay The area of NB near Stanley, is pristine and I would feel comfortable drinking the water in any of the brooks out there. I worry about a major breach from spring flooding or like a major rainfall we had in parts of NB this weekend. I lived through a major pollution of Muggah's Creek in Sydney and the Sydney Tar Ponds from the coking and steel making days that cost tax payers close to $500 Million. Including the Mount Polley mine tailings failure another in Brazil left not only deaths in Brazil but the land was rendered useless.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vale-sa-disaster-ahome/brazilian-mine-tragedy-will-not-be-the-last-tailings-dam-disaster-andy-home-idUSKCN1Q405J More study needs to be done on this and hopefully a Billion dollar bond is posted for a remote possibility of a breach.
David Amos
Reply to @Ray Bungay: Dream on
Kyle Woodman Good article Mr. Perley. I don't see this project getting a shovel in the ground anytime soon. Seems like they're still moving forward but it's very much a speculation play. Don't give Northcliffe any taxpayer money and it will never see the light of day.
David Amos Reply to @Kyle Woodman: I heard that too
Samual Johnston I’d like to see the communities give back all the money they accepted when the approval was granted. Do that then preach to us about the traditional gathering grounds.
David Amos
Reply to @Samual Johnston: I concur
Lou Bell
Have they finished k il l in g the maple trees up there looking to illegally cut Birdseye Maple ? So much for " protecting the land and it's resources "
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Marguerite Deschamps
Reply to @Lou Bell: it is not illegal in their case!
Samual Johnston
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: it sure is illegal - governments afraid to confront them.
Lou Bell
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: It's ILLEGAL to cut Birdseye Maple in NB for everyone. They went around notching and k il li ing the Maples looking for the Birdseye. Get your facts straight.
David Amos
Reply to @Marguerite Deschamps: Methinks many would agree that you and Lou deserve each other N'esy Pas?
David Amos
Reply to @Samual Johnston: I agree
CeeJay Shaw This is a strategic tungsten mine. Key word STRATEGIC. This means that NATO needs / wants the ore and nothing will stop it now.
David Amos
Reply to @CeeJay Shaw: Methinks the Fat Lady ain't sung on this issue yet N'esy Pas?
Mario Doucet Just forget it, too many fingers in the pie.
David Amos
Reply to @Mario Doucet: Methinks that is just one of the many reasons why we should enjoy this circus N'esy Pas?
Suzanne Mason A well written, documented and informative article on the proposed Sisson Mine. Bravo Logan Perley. I echo concern for the long term negative impacts of this project on the environment, the wildlife, the water and the land.
David Amos
Reply to @Suzanne Mason: So you say
Archie Levesque Your environmentally friendly Liberal governments in action
David Amos
Reply to @Archie Levesque: YUP
David Amos I wonder if Carolyn Bennett study my file in the docket of Federal Court while she is in Fat Fred City? Methinks many Chiefs and media dudes and even Jake Stewart know why I ran against her predecessor Andy Scott many moons ago N'esy Pas?
"Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and northern affairs, is in attendance and reflected on what she sees as positive strides in Indigenous relations and steps toward self-determination for First Nations.
In her remarks before the afternoon talks, Bennett said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made it clear that Indigenous Rights "are not optional."
The minister said the relationship between the Canadian government and Indigenous people is now based on "recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership."
"Delegates that rose to provide comments and questions, however, disputed the minister's remarks. The roughly dozen individuals that spoke described a disconnect between Bennett's words and their reality.
Words like "reconciliation" have no meaning if Ottawa isn't practising what it preaches, they said.
"You might say good words, but when it comes down to the bureaucrats, we're not seeing it," Chief Elaine Johnston of Serpent River First Nation in Ontario told Bennett.
Progress toward self-determination is hampered by federal negotiators and Department of Justice officials who aren't embracing pledges of respect and rights recognition made by Bennett's department, they said."
Latest Sisson Mine approval leaves First Nations, conservation groups uneasy
Tailings pond for proposed mine north of Fredericton requires damming two fish-bearing brooks
Nick Polchies of Woodstock First Nation isn't ready to give up his opposition to the Sisson Mine, despite the project's approval by two levels of government. (Logan Perley/CBC)
For two years, Nick Polchies of Woodstock First Nation and his dog Arizona have been waking up in the woods, on land that someday — and for centuries to come — could be a toxic tailings pond.
Polchies initially went to the site, about 80 kilometres northwest of Fredericton, to help the Wolastoqi grandmothers already camping out there to protest the proposed Sisson Mine.
Northcliff Resources Ltd., a Vancouver-based company, says its open-pit tungsten and molybdenum mine would create 500 jobs during construction and 300 jobs for the 27 years it is expected to operate.
The $579-million mine near the community of Napadogan would also have a storage pond for toxic waste that would last for many years after the mine is abandoned. The waste facility would require the damming of two fish-bearing brooks.
Polchies's resolve to fight the project only deepened when the mine and the tailings pond proposed for the unceded Wolastoqey land got approval this summer from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
"Basically, my mind kind of went to an old meme," said the frustrated Polchies. "It's like 'how many times must we teach you this lesson, old man?' Like it's not going to happen, we're not going to allow it to happen."
The proposed mine project includes a tailings pond and ore processing plant, covering 12.5 square kilometres of Crown land. (Northcliff Resources Ltd
First Nations and environmental groups have been concerned about the mining project since it was first proposed in 2011. And despite being consulted as the proposal moved through the approval process, they still believe it's a mistake.
"It's unfortunate but the economic arguments in favour of large mining projects almost always outweigh the environmental damages that projects like the Sisson Mine will do," said Lois Corbett, executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.
The federal approval published July 10 came with amendments to the regulations covering metal and diamond mining effluent. Under the revised regulations, Bird Brook and West Branch Napadogan Brook would be lost and included in the tailings pond.
Endangered American eel and Atlantic salmon are present in both brooks, which run into the Nashwaak River, then to the St. John River, or Wolastoq.
Two years later, six Wolastoqey communities — St. Mary's, Woodstock, Oromocto, Tobique, Kingsclear and Madawaska — signed an"accommodation" agreement with the province, a multi-million dollar deal giving them a share of provincial revenue generated by the mine.
The bands said their position on the mine hadn't changed but they had no choice but to sign the accommodation agreement. If they didn't sign, they'd lose a tax agreement with the province, which provides them with own-source revenue.
Archeological surveying done since the mine was proposed has uncovered artifacts near the ore body, including an 8,500-year-old spear point.
Other artifacts that were documented and sealed disappeared from the same site. A traditional longhouse has since been constructed there and has been used for ceremonies.
Two brooks to vanish
Even the federal Environment Department's own assessment of the project, produced in 2017, found the mine would have adverse effects on the environment and the Wolastoqiyik's traditional use of the land and water. But the government decided that with mitigation, the adverse effects could be justified.
Northcliff has not said when it wants to go ahead with the Sisson Mine. Tungsten is at its lowest price since 2010, while molybdenum is only slowly gaining value.
After the recent federal approval of the mine, the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick chiefs reiterated their opposition.
Marieka Chaplin, executive director of the Nashwaak Watershed Association, says her grassroots group is opposed to the destruction of fish-bearing streams. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)
First Nations and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were consulted on the fish habitat compensation plan for the project needed before mine waste can be deposited in the two fish-bearing brooks.
But the chiefs said in a news release that despite being part of the engagement process, they weren't notified the two brooks would not be protected by effluent regulations.
Eye-opening moment
Polchies said he didn't know anything about the mine project until a provincial Department of Natural Resources agent first talked to him about it several years ago.
"He pointed out a little distance and said, It's going to expand from here to here, roughly that would be about the size of that dam, it's going to be all tailings, toxic water,'" Polchies said. "And that's pretty much when I knew I had to switch places."
Marieka Chaplin, executive director of the Nashwaak Watershed Association, which has been involved in the consultation from the early stages, said there are many things about the tailings pond that are concerning.
"We're concerned about the impact the project would have on our rivers and waterways," Chaplin said. "And obviously as a grassroots watershed organization, we're just simply opposed to the destruction of fish-bearing streams because that's one of the main things that we're trying to restore and conserve."
Lois Corbett, executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, says the dam for the Sisson Mine's tailings storage facility will be twice as high as the Mactaquac Dam and 16 times as long. (Jon Collicott/CBC)
Chaplin said her group has been a part of the consultation process but still doesn't know what the detailed financial plan is.
"We're very curious to know what it would cost to treat and store the mine's tailings, for example. We're concerned about seepage from the mine's tailings there."
It's unfortunate but the economic arguments in favour of large mining projects almost always outweigh the environmental damages that projects like the Sisson Mine will do
- Lois Corbett, Conservation Council of New Brunswick
Despite the federal approval, the project is still subject to 40 legally binding conditions attached to the provincial approval.
They include collaborating with post-secondary institutions for training programs, an emergency preparedness and response program, consulting with First Nations to determine the impact on animals of importance, and a water management plan.
"The project owners can crow and say that it's a significant milestone," Corbett said of the federal approval, "but there's a whole heck of a lot more hills that have to be overcome before we'll see a shovel in the ground."
Economic argument wins
Although many people wrote to oppose the mine project, especially the dumping of waste into two brooks, Corbett said she wasn't surprised Northcliff has won approval from government.
"This is a economic depressed area, so this is an easy place to do a foolio on the government and … decision-makers. And I think that we need to end that era being taken advantage of."
"It's unfortunate but the economic arguments in favour of large mining projects almost always outweigh the environmental damages that projects like the Sisson Mine will do."
Contents from the Mount Polley Mine tailings pond spill down the Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake near the town of Likely, B.C., in this photo from Aug. 5, 2014. The dam for the pond that stored toxic waste broke, causing a wide water-use ban in the area. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press Despite industry's advantage, Corbett said, First Nations and environmental groups were still able get $954,000 set aside for the fish habitat compensation plan, up from the $83,000 initially proposed.
"That got jacked up to almost a million dollars, so it is better now," she said. "But from an ecological perspective, what the compensation package is doing is actually taking down one culvert and one dam, and restoring alewife in the Nashwaak, which is an admirable goal but it is not replacing Atlantic salmon nor American eel.
"So that it's kind of a switcheroo."
"Heck of a big dam"
Corbett said that the dam that will hold back the proposed tailings pond at Sisson will be larger than the Mactaquac Dam.
The tailings storage facility will be roughly 3½ kilometres by 2½ kilometres and up to 90 metres high.
"So that's one heck of a big dam," she said.
The tailings storage facility will be built from earth and rock with a geosynthetic liner.
The Mount Polley mine disaster in 2014 was a wakeup call about the regulation of the mining industry, Corbett said.
In 2014, a tailings pond for the Mount Polley copper and gold open-pit mine in British Columbia breached and flooded toxic water and mine waste into the nearby lakes and streams. Charges have not been laid against the mining company responsible for the breach.
"We were freaking out about a dam, approved federally and provincially, that collapsed and wiped out lakes and fisheries," Corbett said.
Representatives of Northcliff Resources Ltd. and the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government were contacted but would not be interviewed.
Nick Polchies is confident the protest camp at the proposed site will remain for as necessary, or when the project is called off.
"It's a fight and I refuse to stand down" Polchies says.
Logan Perley is a Wolastoqey journalist from Tobique First Nation and a summer intern at CBC New Brunswick. You can email him at logan.perley@cbc.ca or follow him on Twitter @LoganPerley.
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Up to 2,000 delegates are expected to gather under the theme Celebrating Successes and Giving Thanks. 0:00
The Assembly of First Nations will open its 40th annual general assembly in the Fredericton region on Tuesday.
First Nation leaders from across Canada are in the New Brunswick capital for the three-day event, a chance to discuss Indigenous issues and the challenges facing Canada and its relationship with First Nations.
Chief Elaine Johnston of Serpent River First Nation in Ontario was among the droves of delegates who arrived and registered for the conference Monday.
"It's an opportunity for all the First Nation leaders to network and also talk about the future directions that we'd like to work on," Johnston said.
She said she's keen to discuss how newly passed federal legislation to overhaul the Indigenous child welfare system, known as Bill C-92, will affect her community.
An exchange of water ceremony took place early Tuesday morning in Fredericton. (Catherine Harrop/CBC)
The oft-criticized legislation is listed among the issues for the afternoon discussion and resolutions session. The assembly will also discuss the environment and climate change; housing, water and emergency management; and the new Indigenous languages legislation, among other topics.
A pipe ceremony at 6 a.m. AT on St. Mary's First Nation opened the general assembly, followed by an exchange of water ceremony, where six participants travelled by canoe along the St. John River to give thanks to the body of water. About 60 people, including chiefs and members of the public, were in attendance.
This week's annual general assembly of the Assembly of First Nations in Fredericton was marked by a flag raising ceremony at city hall on Monday. The flag for the traditional Wolastoqey territory was raised. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
The opening ceremonies and official welcome will run from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Fredericton Convention Centre, home to most of the proceedings.
Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and northern affairs, will address the assembly at 1 p.m. before the discussion session begins.
