"Innu Asking Court Today for Injunction Against Voisey's Bay Construction Work"
St.John's, Newfoundland - The Innu Nation and the Labrador Inuit
Association are in court today in St.John's seeking an injunction to
prevent the Newfoundland Minister of Environment from issuing any permits
or approvals in relation to the advanced infrastructure proposed by the
Voisey's Bay Nickel Company. The Innu and Inuit want to protect the
integrity of the environmental assessment process established by Canada,
Newfoundland, the Innu and Inuit to review the proposed Voisey's Bay mining
development.
Innu Nation president, Katie Rich, said, "It's hard to believe, but the
company maintains that the advanced infrastructure is a separate project,
and is seeking approvals under the provincial environmental assessment
process. Who are they trying to fool? Anyone can see that the airstrip,
road and other developments at the site are part of a major mining
development, and are not separate projects."
"Allowing the infrastructure to be built this summer would prejudice the
environmental assessment of the Voisey's Bay project," Ms. Rich said.
"What's the purpose of an environmental assessment anyways, if governments
and companies are going to ignore or undermine them at every opportunity?
We negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding in good faith with Canada,
Newfoundland and the Inuit, and we expect the federal and provincial
signatories to respect their part of the bargain. This means doing a
complete environmental assessment before construction starts, not allowing
roads, airstrips and other project components to proceed while the
environmental review process is just getting off the ground."
According to Ms. Rich, "The long-term well-being of the Innu, Inuit, and
our environment in the Voisey's Bay area are more important than rushing
the Voisey's Bay project ahead. We need a thorough environmental
assessment process in order to answer important questions related to
tailings and other negative impacts from the development."
Finally, Ms. Rich said, "It's too bad we had to go to court. This action is
about forcing VBNC and Inco to live up to their public statements about
being committed to the environment. The company can't claim to be
environmentally responsible when it is trying to detour around the
environmental review process established under the MOU."
The purpose of an environmental assessment is to predict and evaluate the
impacts of a project before irreversible decisions are made. Roads and
airstrips are irreversible decisions with real impacts, but these impacts
can only be appreciated and understood in the context of the mine they are
intended to serve. Without an opportunity to review and assess the project
as a whole, it is impossible to make responsible decisions about whether or
not it should proceed.
According to VBNC, this infrastructure is intended to support advanced
exploration activities by providing improved access to the site. The
company maintains that the infrastructure is not included in the project
under environmental assessment, but coincidentally, the proposed road,
airstrip and dock are all in the same locations that the permanent road,
airstrip, and dock would be situated in the event that the mine-mill
project is permitted to proceed.
The Environmental Assessment Panel established under the four-party MOU has
also questioned the company's decision to build infrastructure this summer.
Panel Chairperson, Lesley Griffiths, stated on June 16, 1997, that "If
approval were given to the Exploration Support Works, the Panel believes
that the credibility of the review process would be called into questiona
and that some communities or individuals would discontinue their
participation. This would obviously damage the Panel's Ability to carry
out an effective and timely review of the Undertaking."
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Larry Innes Visit the Innu Nation WWW site:
Environmental Advisor http://www.web.net/~innu/
Innu Nation
P.O. Box 119, Sheshatshiu, Labrador, Canada A0P 1M0
phone: (709) 497-8398 email: innuenv@web.net fax: (709) 497-8396