2299 1 2 PROSPERITY GOLD-COPPER MINE PROJECT 3 CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REGISTRY #09-05-44811 4 ___________________________________ 5 6 FEDERAL REVIEW PANEL PUBLIC HEARING 7 PURSUANT TO: 8 SECTION 34 OF THE CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT ACT 9 10 11 12 _______________________________________ 13 PROCEEDINGS AT HEARING 14 COMMUNITY SESSION 15 April 1, 2010 16 Volume 14 17 Pages 2299 to 2454 18 ________________________________________ 19 20 21 22 Held at: 23 Xeni Gwet'in Community Band Hall 24 Nemiah Valley British Columbia 25 Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2300 1 APPEARANCES 2 FEDERAL PANEL: 3 Mr. Robert (Bob) Connelly, Panel Chair 4 Mr. Bill Klassen, Panel Member Ms. Nalaine Morin, Panel Member 5 6 CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AGENCY (CEAA): 7 Ms. Colette Spagnuolo Mr. Joseph Ronzio 8 Mr. Livain Michaud Ms. Cindy Parker 9 Ms. Carolyn Dunn Mr. Jaron Dyble 10 Ms. Lucille Jamault Ms. Patricia McKeage 11 12 APPLICANT 13 Keith Clark, Esq. (Counsel) ) For Taseko Mines Limited 14 Mr. Brian Battison ) Mr. Rod Bell-Irving ) 15 Mr. Scott Jones ) Ms. Katherine Gizikoff ) 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2301 1 INTERESTED PARTIES AND PRESENTERS: (In order of appearance on the record): 2 3 Mr. David Williams ) Personal capacity 4 Mr. Wayne McCrory ) Personal capacity 5 Mr. Siegfried Reuter ) Personal capacity 6 Mr. James Lulua Senior ) Personal capacities Ms. Dinah Lulua ) 7 Ms. Mabel Solomon ) and family ) 8 Mr. Ronnie Solomon ) Personal capacity 9 (Through interpretation by ) Former Chief Roger William ) 10 Ms. Marty Solomon ) Personal capacity 11 Mr. Marvin William ) Personal capacity 12 (Through interpretation by ) Former Chief Roger William ) 13 14 15 16 COURT REPORTING: 17 Mainland Reporting Services, Inc. 18 Nancy Nielsen, RPR, RCR, CSR(A) Stephen Gill, CCR, CSR(A) 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2302 1 INDEX OF PROCEEDINGS 2 DESCRIPTION PAGE NO. 3 (PRAYER) 2303 (DRUMMING CEREMONY) 4 OPENING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN: 2303 5 PRESENTATION BY MR. DAVID WILLIAMS: 2306 6 QUESTIONS BY TASEKO: 2351 7 QUESTIONS BY THE PANEL: 2353 8 PRESENTATION BY MR. WAYNE MCCRORY: 2356 9 QUESTIONS BY TASEKO: 2381 10 QUESTIONS BY THE PANEL: 2383 11 PRESENTATION BY MR. SIEGFRIED REUTER: 2389 12 PRESENTATION BY JAMES LULUA SENIOR, 2411 13 DINAH LULUA, MABEL SOLOMON, AND FAMILY: 14 PRESENTATION BY MR. RONNIE SOLOMON, AS 2426 INTERPRETED BY FORMER CHIEF ROGER 15 WILLIAM: 16 PRESENTATION BY MS. MARTY SOLOMON: 2429 17 PRESENTATION BY MR. MARVIN WILLIAM, AS 2431 TRANSLATED BY FORMER CHIEF ROGER 18 WILLIAM: 19 RESPONSE TO UNDERTAKING BY TASEKO: 2434 20 RESPONSE TO PROCEEDINGS IN GENERAL BY 2436 TASEKO: 21 CLOSING COMMENTS BY CHIEF BAPTISTE: 2448 22 CLOSING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN: 2451 23 (PRAYER) 2453 24 (DRUMMING CEREMONY) (PROCEEDINGS CLOSED AT 1:14 P.M.) 25 Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2303 1 (PRAYER) 2 (DRUMMING CEREMONY) 3 CHIEF BAPTISTE: Good morning, everybody. 4 Of course, thanks again for coming to our fourth, and 5 to the Panel, it's the fourth and final day in our 6 community. To our community, this is not the final 7 day because we have not had enough time for all of our 8 People to be heard, and I hope that there will also be 9 time at the end for closing remarks, not only from the 10 Taseko Mines Limited but from the Xeni Gwet'in, so, 11 and I'll keep it short at that time. 12 (Aboriginal language spoken) 13 OPENING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN: 14 Good morning, Chief Baptiste, Elders, First 15 Nation members, Ladies and Gentlemen, Taseko, the 16 Secretariat. 17 Thank you, first of all, for your opening 18 prayer and welcome into the Xeni Gwet'in territory, 19 Xeni Gwet'in community and into your traditional 20 territory. 21 Thank you also for the song reminding us of 22 the upcoming Easter. 23 We will begin shortly with our first speaker. 24 I have a few administrative matters to raise. 25 We've had quite a few exhibits yesterday and Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2304 1 I will just go through the list again for 2 administrative reasons. 3 Exhibit 39 was a Presentation by Sean Nixon. 4 Exhibits 40 and 41, the slide show and map 5 provide by Shari Hughson. 6 Exhibits 42 and 43, Alex Lulua's Presentation 7 and the Google Earth images. 8 Exhibit 44, Presentation by Gene Cooper. 9 Exhibit 45, the photos of the daycare program 10 activities provided by Suzie Setah. 11 Exhibit 46, a poster provided by Margaret and 12 Julianne Lulua. 13 And Exhibit 47, a presentation also by the 14 same two people. 15 Exhibit 48 was the B.C. Provincial Revenue 16 Sharing Agreement provided by Taseko. 17 Exhibit 49 was the Potato Mountain 18 Presentation. 19 Exhibit 50, the Tsilhqot'in Sacred Knowledge 20 Presentation. 21 Exhibit 51, a photo of the map locating 22 Potato Mountain. 23 Exhibit 52, a presentation by Alice William. 24 And we had -- sorry, Exhibit 53 -- no, just 25 an error there. Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2305 1 We had one undertaking by Margaret Lulua to 2 provide a copy of the Xeni Gwet'in Framework 3 Agreement. 4 So that concludes the administrative 5 arrangements from yesterday, administrative matters 6 from yesterday. 7 In terms of this morning, we'll begin shortly 8 with our first speaker. 9 I will just indicate the names of people who 10 had registered some time ago, I believe, for this 11 morning's presentation. 12 In order: 13 Mr. David Williams. 14 Mr. Wayne McCrory. 15 Jim and Diana Lulua. 16 And Siegfried Reuter. 17 And we have possibly Joanne Kimmel-Annshendy 18 (phonetic). 19 We also have an exhibit later which is a 20 recorded or at least an exhibit that will be entered 21 into the record which is a recorded interview by Mabel 22 William. 23 In terms of the morning, we will break about 24 roughly about 10:30, a short break. We will complete 25 the presentations around 12:30 to allow Taseko to Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2306 1 respond with their concluding remarks following the 2 sessions here in the Nemiah Valley. 3 I think they need about half an hour, I 4 understand, to respond. 5 We will be closing at about 1 o'clock. And 6 following the traditions here in the community, I 7 understand we'll have a closing ceremony as well. 8 That concludes the opening remarks for this 9 morning. 10 I would just hope that or would ask if those 11 who are speaking are able to summarize the extent they 12 can their comments this morning so we can ensure that 13 we hear all of the speakers listed. And we may have 14 time for a few others if there is room later in the 15 morning. 16 So with that, I'll turn to our first speaker, 17 Mr. David Williams, please. 18 PRESENTATION BY MR. DAVID WILLIAMS: 19 MR. D. WILLIAMS: (Aboriginal language spoken). 20 Good morning. My name is David Williams. I 21 am the President of Friends of the Nemaiah Valley. 22 And I'd like to thank our hosts here today, 23 the people of Xeni Gwet'in, Chief, Council, Elders and 24 members of the public, many, many friends here today, 25 and the representatives from Taseko Mines, of course. Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2307 1 This is a little bit like the CBC show the 2 Dragon's Den, except it's Taseko Mines here today with 3 the bad business idea. 4 Friends of Nemaiah Valley is a not-for-profit 5 society. We have an all-volunteer board of nine 6 members, four of whom are landowners in this area, and 7 we have many friends from all over the world. 8 We have several protocols with the Xeni 9 Gwet'in First Nations Government and we work closely 10 with them on many enterprises. 11 Our mandate is to protect the environment of 12 the Nemiah Valley and the surrounding area. And as 13 part of this, we support the Xeni Gwet'in Rights and 14 Title case. 15 We do scientific research. We support a wild 16 horse ranger program for the ?Elegesi Qiyus Wild Horse 17 Preserve. And we have educational programs. 18 Through the Xeni Gwet'in committee, we were 19 instrumental in bringing the First Voices Program to 20 the community. 21 We believe in and support culturally 22 appropriate economic developments, and we have dome 23 some environmental rehabilitation following the 2003 24 fire. And that was to rehabilitate some of the many 25 fire guards that were put in place at that time. Mainland Reporting Services Inc. [email protected] 2308 1 That sums up what we do. I'm going to try 2 and move along quickly because I have been asked to be 3 as quick as I can. And the first thing I want to do 4 is to present a petition. 5 It's from a website operated by one of our 6 vice-presidents, Wolfgang Zilker. It's to protect 7 Fish Lake, Teztan Biny, website. 8 And the petition has a preamble which says: 9 "Teztan Biny is part of the 10 Tsilhqot'in homeland and the 11 Taseko River/Fraser River 12 watershed. At Teztan, Nabas and 13 Jididzay, Tsilhqot'in families 14 have hunted, trapped and fished 15 and gathered medicines in their 16 traditional way of life for 17 decades, just like their ancestors 18 the Esketemc did before them.