Vancouver Sun, August 25, 2010
VANCOUVER — The provincial government has signed two revenue-sharing agreements with two first nation communities in the last two days for specific mining projects within the areas the groups claim as traditional territory.
On Wednesday in Victoria, the province unveiled an agreement to share mineral-tax revenues generated by Terrane Metals Corp.'s Mt. Milligan copper and gold mine being developed northwest of Prince George with the McLeod Lake Indian Band.
That follows from a similar deal signed Tuesday regarding the sharing of mineral-tax revenue from New Gold Inc.'s New Afton gold mine being developed just outside of Kamloops with the Stk'emlupsemc community of the Secwepemc Nation.
Randy Hawse, the government's Minister of State for mining, characterized the arrangements as economic and community development agreements to support community development in keeping with the province's New Relationship with first nations and meets the goals of its Transformative Change Accord.
In unveiling the Stk'emlupsemc agreement, Forest Minister Pat Bell, the minister responsible for provincial integrated land management, said the deals represent an extension of the province's efforts to share resource revenue with first nations.
“Since 2003 we've been sharing forestry revenues with First Nations, and with [this] agreement we're expanding revenue-sharing to other resource sectors,” Bell said.
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