EDITORIAL — Ottawa and environmentalists at it again — Much ado about (maybe) nothing

First of all, it is not a park, only a park proposal. And it’s not a mine yet either, or even a mineral deposit for that matter. It’s the strongest gravity anomaly in North America, which, if mineral-bearing, may have potential for deposits similar to those in Ontario’s Sudbury Basin or Russia’s Noril’sk mining camp. Then again, it might be a big gabbro intrusion with no minerals of economic interest at all.

Darnley Bay Resources is proposing to drill the anomaly and settle the issue of what’s under the rocks once and for all. Situated 250 km east of Inuvik, the project is within the Inuvialuit Settlement region of the Northwest Territories, which means the Inuvialuit people hold surface and subsurface rights to much of the area. In 1995, Darnley Bay signed a concession agreement that accorded it the right to explore the region while providing the Inuvialuit a stake and role in the project. Both parties are keen to have work begin as soon as possible, and so is the territorial government.

The fuss started when the Inuvialuit, after realizing they had inadvertently allowed a portion of the anomaly to be included in the proposed Tuktut Nogait National Park, asked the federal government to adjust the park boundary so that the entire anomaly would be open for exploration.

But Parks Canada isn’t keen on giving up the ground — a mere 3% of the proposed park area — and environmental groups warn that if it does, the Bluenose Caribou herd and its “critically important calving grounds” would be at risk, along with “the spectacular canyons of the Hornaday and Brock Rivers, archeological sites, muskox and wolves.”

The villain here, as usual, is the mining company. One preservationist group issued a press release entitled “Mining Company’s Gift to Canada — the Incredible Shrinking Park.”

The politically correct organization failed to mention that it was the Inuvialuit who made the proposal, not the mining company. And they failed to mention land additions to the east (in Nunavut) that would double the size of the protected area.

While these environmental groups believe they are experts on caribou, three Inuvialuit groups argue that the current designation of the park does not conform with either the core calving area or the general calving area for the Bluenose herd. The limited (an operative word here) information available suggests that the herd calves across a broad area, from Bluenose Lake to the Bathurst Peninsula, and that the area selected shifts from year to year.

This is consistent with views expressed during an informal session at the recent Nunavut Mining Symposium held in Cambridge Bay, N.W.T.

Representatives from government, Inuit organizations and the mining industry agreed that caribou calving areas cannot be restricted to specific geographic areas. They also noted that caribou calving occurs during only a few weeks of the year. The mining companies said they were more than willing to comply with sensible guidelines during this sensitive period, even if that means shutting down for few weeks if herds are near their projects.

Geologists, prospectors and miners respect wildlife, and have the benefit of a lot more interaction with caribou than environmentalists working in urban offices thousands of kilometres to the south. And mining companies working in the North routinely consult with aboriginal groups, something environmental groups do not appear to be doing in this case.

The time has come to refute dated stereotypes perpetuated by anti-mining organizations which glorify animals but care little about the people of the North or their economic and social aspirations. And the time has come to challenge the notion that Ottawa — which felt the need to take out newspaper ads apologizing for its past dealings with aboriginal peoples — knows best.