The relationship between Taseko Mines and the Tsihqot'in National Government, representing six Chilcotin nations in the Williams Lake area, is beyond "a failure to communicate" and way past "talking right down to Earth in a language that everyone can easily understand."
Taseko wants to build an open-pit gold and copper mine right next to Fish Lake, west of Williams Lake. Taseko's initial proposal involved destroying the lake to use it as a tailings pond but the federal government and the Tsihqot'in both rejected the idea. Taseko's revised plan costs more than $300 million extra and involves carefully framing off the mine from the lake and then diverting all of the rock and effluent to a man-made pond further away.
The impatience both sides have with each other is evident in the statements they made to Citizen reporter Frank Peebles last week.
"The laws of the land are clear - First Nations do not have veto over resource development in Canada - they need to be consulted meaningfully," said Taseko's vice president of corporate affairs Brian Battison.
That may be the law but the politics in 2013 is that major natural resources projects in B.C. don't get approved without buy-in from First Nations. That's reality, whether Taseko likes it or not.
He then talked about how much money the area First Nations could make through revenue sharing with the New Prosperity project (anywhere from 20 to 37 per cent of the $300 million to $400 million going to the province during the life of the mine).
In other words, Taseko's stance is the money is too good to pass up and even it's not about the money, the Tsihqot'in's opposition can't trump the federal environmental review panel and the will of the federal cabinet.
That panel will make a ruling by the end of the month on whether public hearings can start or whether Taseko needs to provide more information about its project plan. Taseko insists it has dealt with all of the issues regarding the salmon and trout populations, the protection of the watershed and the specific care of Fish Lake.
But the Tsihqot'in, and their chief, Joe Alphonse, couldn't see it more differently.
For starters, since they have no treaty, they don't recognize the jurisdictional authority of either the provincial or federal government over the natural resources in their territory. As Alphonse pointed out, the Tsihqot'in can't be labelled anti-development or anti-mining, since they already work with New Gold on its Blackwater project and Amarc on its exploratory work in the region.
It's Taseko they don't like - "there is no relationship and no trust."
And the Tsihqot'in are willing to wait a long time, maybe 20, maybe 50 years.
"The gold in that area isn't going to go anywhere, and neither are we," said Alphonse. "We aren't shareholders, this is our people's home, our nation. From our point of view, that gold is sitting in our bank."
Alphonse said he'd like to see mining technology improve and it's also obvious he would like Taseko to go away and have someone else to talk to about this project.
Taseko seems short-term and impatient while the Tsihqot'in are not. If Taseko can't work it out, perhaps it's time for them to step aside and make room for the mining developers that are giving more than lip service to respecting the role of First Nations in central and northern B.C.
