Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Home

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/nrra/

DEAR CMA MEMBERS,

The Natural Resource Road Act is in the works and we have until December 15th to submit any questions, feedback, recommendations, and so on to the ministry. Please try to read through the information and also use the links (highlighted text) to download any documents you wish to read and use.

All the information below is on the ministry website and you can go there to fill in whatever feedback you may have. Or you can just copy and paste the information off this page and send in your feedback using the email address provided.

Thanks,

Arthur

Webmin

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Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Home

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/nrra/

Natural Resource Roads

Do you use B.C.’s resource roads for work, recreation, or because you live in or visit rural communities off the public road system? If so, help us serve you better by contributing to the Natural Resource Road Act Project to improve resource road laws and regulation for the benefit of all users.

Comments are invited on a discussion paper that will help build the foundation for the Natural Resource Road Act. The principles and proposed policy framework presented in this discussion paper are the starting point for a single, streamlined law that applies to all resource roads in B.C.

You are invited to voice your concerns and suggest solutions that will work for everyone. Comments will be accepted until December 15, 2011.

Discussion Paper

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD : Introductory Presentation

CLICK HERE:  FAQs

WE WANT TO
HEAR FROM YOU

Submit Feedback 

Your input is invited to help develop the Natural Resource Road Act.

Response Form

If you would like to keep a copy of your submission for your personal records, please use the email link below.

NRRoadAct@gov.bc.ca

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/mof/nrra/feedback.htm
Submit Feedback

The Province of British Columbia wants to better serve the needs of all resource road users.

A Discussion Paper for the proposed Natural Resource Road Act has been prepared to solicit input from stakeholder groups and the public.  The goal of this paper is to explain the proposed principles and key policies being used to develop the NRRA, and to invite feedback to government.

Comments will be accepted until December 15, 2011.  They will be collated and used as part of the Natural Resource Road Act policy development process.

We appreciate your time in responding to the discussion paper.  Responses should not be limited by the questions posed below.  You should feel free to respond to the proposed principle or proposed policy however you feel appropriate.  The questions provided are only intended to help prompt feedback.  You are not required to respond to every single question.  You may choose to focus on certain topics that are the most important to you.

The Policy Framework

Part 1: Framework Principles

The following principles will guide the development of this new legislation.  They will act as filters or lenses through which all policy challenges and ideas will be viewed.

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http://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item.aspx?bid=Z-C:TKO-1904341&symbol=TKO&news_region=C

Taseko’s work permits no good, claims Tsilhqotin

November 25, 2011

by Mike Caswell
www.stockwatch.com

When Taseko Mines Ltd. faces the Tsilhqotin First Nation in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Monday, one of the issues the judge will have to decide is a petition that the Indians have filed in Victoria seeking to quash the company’s work permits. According to the petition, the government failed to perform any meaningful consultation with the Tsilhqotin before granting approval for the work, which includes 59 test pits and 23.5 kilometres of trails. The band claims that the work will interfere with its “ceremonial or spiritual activities.”

The petition complains that the area the company plans to work in is a “special part” of Tsilhqotin territory. The proposed exploration will disturb wildlife and increase access and hunting by non-Indians. This will interfere with the Tsilhqotin’s use of the area as a “grocery store for country foods,” according to the petition.

The work that Taseko is seeking to perform is part of its second attempt to have the Prosperity mine approved by the federal government. The project, which could create 71,000 jobs and run for 23 years, stalled last year after the federal Ministry of Environment refused to approve the mine even after its provincial counterpart in B.C. had given the project the go-ahead. The company has since revised its proposal, hoping to address the most contentious part of the plan. Instead of draining a small water body adjacent to the mine called Fish Lake for use as a tailings pond, the company will now spend $300-million to create a separate pond.

The Indians, however, remain opposed to the plan. When Taseko attempted to access the site earlier this month, they set up roadblock that prevented the company from traversing a gravel road that leads to Prosperity.

Tsilhqotin’s petition

The Tsilhqotin First Nation filed a petition to stop work at Prosperity on Nov. 10, 2011, at the Victoria courthouse, four days after they first set up the roadblock. The respondents include Taseko, the Province of British Columbia and the chief inspector of mines. According to the petition, the Tsilhqotin have proven hunting and trapping rights to Fish Lake and the surrounding area, which they say their ancestors used before contact with Europeans.

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http://www.straight.com/article-546376/vancouver/mining-accountability?page=0%2C1
Critics claim mineral exploration in B.C. needs more accountability

Campaigning for the B.C. Liberal Party leadership, Christy Clark promised to put the controversial Prosperity Mine project back into play.

Mineral exploration is exploding in B.C., but critics claim the provincial government isn’t assessing the environmental impact.

By Andrew Findlay,

November 24, 2011
Soaring global demand for metal has caused a surge in mining and exploration in British Columbia, and Premier Christy Clark has promised to open eight new mines by 2015. However, recent reports from B.C.’s auditor general and the UVic Environmental Law Centre suggest the provincial environmental-assessment office is not up to the task.

Mines, typically subject to both federal and provincial reviews, are extremely complex. They often require hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital and promise high-paying jobs and a windfall in tax revenue, but their environmental footprint is equally dizzying, with potential long-term impacts on fish-and-wildlife habitat.

Currently, the 50-person staff at the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO) is weighing the socioeconomic benefits and environmental impacts of 60 projects, half of them for new mines, mine expansions, or old mines being resurrected, thanks to recent high mineral prices. Among them are projects like the Ajax Mine, a proposal by Abacus Mining and Exploration Corporation (in partnership with Polish mining giant KGHM Polska Miedz S. A.) for a massive 500-million-tonne (over 23 years) low-grade-copper property that was operated by Teck Cominco in the 1980s and 1990s but abandoned when copper prices were low.

This open-pit project on the doorstep of Kamloops is worth $550 million in capital investment, and is expected to have a 400-person full-time work force. It is undergoing both federal and provincial environmental assessments and has dominated public debate in this city of almost 90,000, just as the divisive Prosperity Mine, approved by the province but rejected by the feds, did and continues to do in the community of Williams Lake.

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