Cree unmoved by uranium lobby
REGULATORY BODY’S OK of a mine vital to Plan Nord cuts no ice with the nine First Nations that want the government to say no
“The Crees have said loud and clear
they don’t want it.”
UGO LAPOINTE, MINING WATCHDOG
The next step in the proposed uranium mine project near Mistissini in northern Quebec got a green light from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission last week, but even the commission acknowledges that the Cree Nation is waving a big red stop sign.
Chief Richard Shecapio flew down to Montreal from his community of Mistissini, north of Chibaugamau, this month to draw attention to his community’s intense opposition to uranium mining. That position is held widely across the nine Cree nations of northern Quebec, not to mention hundreds of municipalities all over the province that have passed resolutions against it.
“We are not opposed to any other kind of development foreseen in our territory … (but as for uranium), our opposition will not change.” Shecapio told The Gazette last week.
The Matoush Project is the most advanced of about 20 proposed uranium mining projects for northern Quebec, and was part of the defeated Liberal government’s muchvaunted Plan Nord. While the Parti Québécois called for a moratorium on uranium mining in 2009, the party was less clear on the issue during the recent election campaign.
Environment Minister Daniel Breton and his aide Danielle Rioux have refused repeated requests for an interview with The Gazette on the issue over the past two weeks.
But those opposed to the project took heart that Premier Pauline Marois said in Paris last week that her government intends to continue to develop the north, but will “respect the aboriginal people and the First Nations who occupy the territory.”
For Ugo Lapointe, who heads the mining watchdog group Pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine, respecting the Cree has to mean killing the Matoush project and other uranium mining projects in the province.
“The Crees have said loud and clear they don’t want it, so unless the government wants to go into a war, a political war, over Cree lands,” it has to say no to this type of development, Lapointe said.
Going ahead with the project would go against the spirit and the letter of the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which paved the way for hydroelectric development on Cree territory, as well as an updated version of that agreement signed in 2002 called La Paix des Braves, he said. Both of these agreements stress the importance of social acceptance by native communities of any development projects in the north.
But Lapointe acknowledged the mining industry lobby is strong.
“There are 100 to 150 registered mining lobbyists in Quebec, and they will do everything they can to make this pass.”
Boucherville-based Strateco Resources Inc. has spent more than $110 million since 2006 trying to get its $425-million Matoush Project off the ground, and a respectable chunk of that investment has gone toward trying to convince the Cree people that the mine will benefit them. No dice, Shecapio said. “Uranium poses too big a risk to our way of life. There is too much uncertainty about the radioactive waste, with its long life, and there haven’t been any real solutions found to keep this waste contained. The location of the project is in the Otish mountains, with a watershed that flows into major rivers and into the biggest freshwater lake in Quebec, Mistassini Lake.”
Shecapio admits that some members of his community do support the Matoush project, including certain “tallymen,” traditional Cree hunters and trappers whose ancestral lands include the mine site, which is about 210 kilometres northeast of Mistissini. Some have accepted lucrative contracts to provide services to the project workers, he said.
But the vast majority of Cree oppose it, Shecapio said, and would much rather see the province invest its money in projects that don’t pose a risk to the environment and their traditional lifestyle, such as development of the Albanel-Témiscamie-Otish provincial park. That park, an 11,000-square-kilometre area that includes Mistassini Lake and the Témiscamie River, has great potential for ecotourism, Shecapio said.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials in Canada, clearly acknowledged Cree opposition in its recent decision, but said its mandate is not to ensure that local populations approve of projects.
“During the course of the hearing, the commission de- veloped a better understanding of the very deep concerns of the people of the Cree Nation of Mistissini regarding the project,” the commission noted, in its reasons for the positive decision.
“While the commission’s mandate does not include social acceptability, the commission strongly encourages Strateco to do more and to use any available means in making useful and frequent contact with the population in this area, in order to make the public information program more effective.”
The nuclear commission’s recent decision is not a goahead for the mine, but rather an approval of a five-year permit to build an underground exploration ramp and other facilities that will help the company determine whether the mine is feasible and how to best design it. The commission will have to do a new environmental evaluation and public hearings on the actual mine project.
Under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the provincial administrator, in this case Deputy Environment Minister Diane Jean, is responsible for the final decision on whether the mine goes ahead.
But of course, Marois and Breton, her environment minister, will influence that decision.
Shecapio is hoping Breton, a former environmental activist, will push his cabinet colleagues to stop the project, the same way the new government has torpedoed the shale gas industry, the asbestos industry and the Gentilly-2 nuclear plant refurbishment project.
Shecapio stresses that neither he, nor the majority of the 3,300-member community he represents, are antidevelopment.