British Columbia Chapter 410-698 Seymour Street Vancouver, BC V6B 3K6 Coast Salish Territory Ph: (604) 685-7445 Fax: (604) 629-8532
[email protected] www.cpawsbc.org To: Mining Operations (Southwest Region)
[email protected] CC: Premier John Horgan Hon. Michelle Mungall, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Hon. Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Hon. George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy Subject: Permit for Mineral Exploration of Giant Copper 0700195 Mine Number: 0700195 Property: Giant Copper On behalf of the BC Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and our 20,000 members, I am writing to register our opposition to the application from Imperial Metals to conduct exploratory mining in the Skagit Valley/Manning Park “Donut Hole” (Giant Copper 0700195). For the reasons outlined below, we urge the Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources and the Government of B.C. to deny the company’s application for a Multi-Year Area Based permit to conduct mineral exploration. 1. Lack of consultation with local First Nations The company has not completed their duty to consult or obtain free, prior and informed consent from the S’o lh Te me xw (Sto :lō) Nation, Syilx tmixʷ (Okanagan) Nation Alliance and Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka’pamux) Nation Tribal Council. Imperial Metals’ application states that they have not “shared information or engaged with First Nations in the area of the proposed activity.” This must be immediately addressed before further consideration of the application. Given the BC government’s commitment to implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it is our expectation that the Ministry of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources will require this for any project application process.