Coast Salish Traditional Territory/West Vancouver, B.C. – The First Nations Summit supports the concerns of the Tse Keh Nay leadership, who accuse the Mining Association of B.C. of trying to discredit the Kemess North Mine Joint Review Panel.
In September, the panel issued a report to the provincial and federal Ministers of the Environment recommending that Northgate Minerals’ Kemess North mine not be approved, saying it “would not be in the public interest.” Northgate is a prominent member of the mining association.
Michael McPhie, president of the mining association, in a recent letter to the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, stated the panel “may have exceeded its terms of reference” in recommending against the project, or if it “did not exceed its mandate, then its mandate was too broad.” He further stated the panel should not have made recommendations “based on its own assessment of public policy,” that this should have been done by “elected political representatives.”