Yesterday, the Federal Government announced in a late day fashion (5:25pm yesterday to be precise) that the Federal Cabinet (Governor-General-in-Council) that it had decided to not permit 'New Prosperity' to move forward into the permitting stage.
Read the announcement here with links to the Decision Statement here and background details here
Also - Global BC reviews the history of the 'Prosperity Mine' mine proposal file including comments from Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett expresses her disappointment while hoping residents of this region come together and figure out the next steps which you can view here and a look back at today's decision can be viewed here
Read a piece on this from the Vancouver Sun here
Meanwhile - First Nations leaders' in the region were pleased with the decision with TNG Tribal Chair Joe Alphonse saying the decision restores his people's faith in the federal environmental assessment process
To no one's obvious surprise - Taseko Mines stated that it "fundamentally disagreed with the decision of the Government of Canada" and was looking into its' options. The City of Williams Lake also announced late Wednesday that it would weigh on this item Thursday (today)
The Federal Government, in their announcement, left the door open for a 4th application - should Taseko Mines agree to go in that direction
Those for the mine predictably expressed disappointment and in some cases, outrage, and suggested that MP's in the region could suffer a political backlash as a result of this decision and expressed hope that Taseko continues with its' court challenge with respect to the Final Report for the Federal Review Panel that reviewed the 'New Prosperity' proposal and further hoped Taseko would attempt to have the Federal Government's decision quashed. The next federal election is scheduled for October of 2015. I will be curious to see how local MP's Dick Harris (Cariboo-PG) and Cathy MacLeod (Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo) respond to the decision of the Federal Cabinet for 'New Prosperity'
From my own perspective - I wasn't entirely surprised to see this decision and it is unlikely that Taseko Mines would want to go for a 4th round and have this result (federal rejection) repeated but it is early days and we all wait to see what Taseko Mines' next move is.
The WL and District Chamber of Commerce regular meeting is today and I expect this item to be discussed among the many in attendance which will include myself among other business or local political leaders…
~SF
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