A self-taught mining expert challenged the economics behind the proposed New Prosperity copper and gold mine on Tuesday as federal review hearings continued in Williams Lake.
Tsilhqot'in National Government representative Joan Kuyek said she doesn't trust information provided by mining company Taseko about the benefits communities in the Cariboo will accrue if the facility is built.
"The resources will be depleted, we'll have no jobs and we'll have no resources for future generations," she told the three-member federal review panel conducting an environmental assessment.
Taseko is seeking a certificate from the federal government to proceed with construction of the facility, located near Fish Lake, but is facing opposition from some First Nations groups in the area as well other non-Aboriginal groups with environmental concerns.
Kuyek called the development "a marginal mine" and said the company won't make a significant contribution to the region's tax base. She said resource communities who chase big employers like mining companies often neglect other small-scale economic development opportunities and then are left in a vulnerable position when a mine closes.
She told the panel if the mine is approved, it would be tantamount to environmental racism.
"Environmental racism is when people who are in an oppressed situation racially are required to bear the burden of development and its consequences disproportionally to people who benefit from it," Kuyek explained under questioning from a member of the public.
Taseko senior vice-president of operations John McManus told the panel the company "completely refutes" nearly everything Kuyek said in her presentation and challenged the author and activist on how her credentials as a doctor of social work applied to the economics of mining.
As someone who is self-taught on the ins and outs of mining economics, Kuyek said she always gets her information verified by a geologist, mining engineer and lawyer but refused to provide the names of her experts because she said they fear being blacklisted.
"I'm not going to swear [the presentation is] all accurate," Kuyek said under questioning.
Taseko was granted an opportunity to respond more fully to Kuyek's presentation later in the month-long environmental assessment process.
Earlier, 100 Mile House resident Leonard Doucette spoke about the need for the mine due to high unemployment in his community, citing his own children who have had to leave the province to find work.
"Our families are starving, they're starving for work," he said.
Doucette said the region was built on mining and other industries like agriculture and ranching developed after mining had been established.
"It was a gold rush that built the Cariboo and this province," he said.
In her presentation, Kuyek countered that after the initial gold rush, First Nations people in the Cariboo suffered from smallpox epidemics.
This is Taskeo's second attempt to satisfy the federal government that its project meets environmental standards. Its first proposal was rejected in 2010, but the company re-submitted its proposal with changes in an effort to satisfy the concerns.
