By Tony Pearse, Postmedia News, Vancouver Sun, November 15, 2010
The Sun's editorial of Nov. 5 slamming the federal decision to reject the Prosperity mine reveals a lack of understanding of the relevant facts.
The editorial states: "The government of the day could have saved everyone involved on both sides of the project much time, money and angst by saying no" 17 years ago when Prosperity was first proposed.
Well, the government of the day said exactly that. In fact, three successive federal fisheries ministers from 1995 onward notified both the province and the company, Taseko Mines Ltd., that a project involving the loss of Fish Lake (called Teztan Biny by the Tsilhqot'in First Nation) was not open for discussion.
Taseko knew as early as 1995 that destroying the lake was out, but continued to push its original proposal without developing a real alternative that might have saved the lake.
In 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new fisheries minister, Loyola Hearne, reversed the federal position and allowed the project to move forward into the federal assessment process. If, as the editorial stated, Taseko did spend as much as $100 million in exploration, then it did this at tremendous risk to its investors knowing that the federal government through all those years was opposed to the sacrifice of the lake.
As for the provincial approval of the project, by all accounts that was a flawed and politically driven decision. The provincial assessment didn't cover half the issues that the federal panel did, nor did it review the issues it did consider as rigorously as did the federal panel. In addition, there was virtually unanimous opposition to the project in the closest and most affected communities -- something not considered in the provincial decision.
The federal process comprised an independent panel of professionals with experience in environmental assessment who heard evidence from many interveners and technical experts, and where cross examination of the company and expert evidence was allowed so as to better establish the facts. The provincial process had none of this. It was done apart from any meaningful public scrutiny and it finessed several serious technical issues raised by provincial regional regulators. In the end, the Environmental Assessment Office concluded simply that the loss of the lake was justified because the alleged economic benefits outweighed the single adverse impact it identified.
But the British Columbia process never examined the economic feasibility of the project, and had no capability to make this judgment call. It simply accepted without question the company's promotional numbers about the presumed economic benefits to the province, and wrote the impacts off on that basis.
These are the same numbers used in The Sun's editorial. Ministers, indeed, have a right to make those trade-offs in their decision-making, but environmental assessors do not. Especially when the economic feasibility is never a part of its review.
The federal panel's report discusses expert evidence brought before it that seriously undermines the company's economic predictions, to the point where subsidies to the company's operation might be required to make it profitable. The editorial complained about the length of time required for government reviews of mine projects, noting that mining companies will be running off to Chile or Indonesia because of the more lax regulatory requirements there. A little research would have revealed that it was Taseko that requested the uncoupling of what had originally been proposed as a joint federal-provincial review.
As a result, the project went through two reviews, instead of one. B.C.'s was speedier since it was much less rigorous and demanding, but the federal process still had to play out. Taseko had only itself to blame for the duplicate processes.
Finally, it is hardly responsible of The Sun to be suggesting that mining companies run off to Third World countries to exploit their resources because their environmental reviews are less restrictive.
Tony Pearse is an environmental consultant who has practised in British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories since 1980.
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