The proponents of mining, pipelines and other resource development projects across B.C. shouldn't lose hope after Wednesday night's decision by the federal government to turn down the New Prosperity gold and copper mine proposal.
The handling of New Prosperity by Taseko Mines has been so bad that this is the second time the project has been turned down by a development-friendly Conservative government.
Taseko got off to a bad start and never got better. During the first review of the mine proposal, the president of the company fired off an angry letter to the federal environment minister, complaining about how unfair the review process was. The specific complaint was about how much aboriginal input there was.
“We believe that it was not appropriate for the panel to begin its hearings with an aboriginal prayer ceremony,” the letter stated. “Similar opportunities were not afforded to other persons or groups of persons.”
Taseko and the Tsilhqot'in National Government couldn't even agree to use the same language. Taseko framed its discussion around mitigating the negative effects on lakes, land and animals while the Tsilhqot'in made emotional appeals about sacred ground and traditional activities.
While Tsilhqot'in chief Joe Alphonse can roll out the rhetoric as thick as anyone, he's not anti-business or opposed on principle to resource development. He and his people are in favour of New Gold's Blackwater project and Amarc on its exploratory work in the region. Clearly, Taseko didn't engage with the Tsilhqot'in in a respectful manner from the beginning.
First Nations weren't the only ones.
Taseko's special ability to find new ways to anger New Prosperity stakeholders extended to the review panel and the federal government. Just days after the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency panel released its findings last fall, Taseko had its lawyers filing an application for a judicial review. The company argued that the panel's findings on the mine's effects on fish habitat were based on incorrect data provided by a scientist from Natural Resources Canada.
As legal observers pointed out, Taseko's hasty march into court was premature, coming before the final decision by the federal cabinet. It was also a direct challenge against the government.
"I'm not sure it's common to publicly state that you will withdraw if the government approves your project," said Dalhousie University professor Meinhard Doelle. "It's being very clear that you're using the threat of litigation as a way to try to influence government decision-making."
Bringing in the lawyers was also short-sighted. Even if the review panel, on the order of a judge, would reconsider the evidence and then decide to drop its concerns about the mine's impact on water quality and fish habitat in Fish Lake, Taseko still wouldn't be in the clear. The panel's issues with how the mine could damage grizzly bear habitat and impede aboriginal cultural activities would still be obstacles to federal approval of the project.
In the end, not even the passionate support of MP Dick Harris, Williams Lake mayor Kerry Cook and the provincial government, through Cariboo South MLA Donna Barnett and mines minsiter Bill Bennett, couldn't save this project.
Taseko has no one to blame but itself for the demise of New Prosperity. Investors and other mine boosters should lay full responsibility for the bungling of this application on the senior leadership team at Taseko.
Looking ahead, Wednesday's decision all but guarantees that the federal government will also accept the findings of the joint review panel into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and give its approval to begin construction, while also addressing the 209 conditions set out by the panel.
That will put Skeena Bulkley-Valley NDP MP Nathan Cullen in the awkward position of approving the Conservatives for listening to the recommendations of the New Prosperity review panel but then criticizing the government for not overturning the results of the Northern Gateway review.
Today, Cullen can celebrate about New Prosperity but that victory will be shortlived.
