I was interested to read the letter to the editor from Jesse Robert Halle in your Friday paper. Halle said, “However, in the past 15 years that I have been involved in exploration and mining, I have witnessed a Canada-wide change in the attitudes of the mining industry to the environment.” He went on to say that the days of the environment having to pay the price for the poor industry practices of the past are now gone.
An article from Mining Watch gives us one Yukon example from the last 10 years, which I quote: “In 1999, Mr. Justice Lillies convicted BYG of three charges related to the abuse of a water licence and stated in his judgment that, ‘The above examples demonstrate an attitude consistent with ‘raping and pillaging’ the resources of the Yukon É There is little evidence of any diligence.’ He went on to describe BYG as ‘inept, bumbling, amateurish and possibly negligent.’”
I have no doubt there are responsible companies and responsible, professional geologists.
However, unlike Halle, I strongly doubt that the days of the environment having to pay the price for the poor industry practices of the past are now gone.
For this and many other reasons, I strongly urge that the Peel Watershed be protected and left in its natural state as a World Heritage Site.
Michael Purves
Whitehorse