It’s over

Wednesday September 7, 2011

By Yukon News

The Peel is lost.

If 100 per cent of the Peel Watershed is not protected, it will not have a future.

If the Yukon government has anything to do with it, there is no hope.

It will promise you conservation today and, in a few years, that will all be forgotten and a whole new plan will magically appear.

Look at my backyard Ð Alexco Resource Corp. decided to put a mill a few hundred metres from Keno. This mining company’s proposal to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board was that it was to be a portable mill and it would only run for four to five years.

Now, a year later, they have a new plan, and the mill may be in place for 10 or 15 years.

They seem to be able to change the plan whenever it suits them, and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board goes along for the ride.

The community has never had any mitigation with the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, and it refuses to hear us (as if that would change anything).

If what is happening to our neighborhood is an example of the way mining is done in the Yukon, the Peel does not stand a chance.

With YTG, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board and Energy, Mines and Resources taking charge, mining will always have the final say over the environment.

Joseph Volf

Keno City