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Mining advisory board under fire
MLAs and environmental groups voice opposition to proposed cabinet appointed body

Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The lack of environmental oversight in a government appointed mining advisory board is drawing increasing criticism.

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Craig Scott, executive director of Ecology North, is one of several people, including two MLAs urging Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay to consider including representatives from environmental groups on a proposed mining advisory board. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay announced plans to create the board -- entirely composed of representatives of the mining industry -- to help steer government policy during a recent trip to a mining symposium in Vancouver.

Both Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley and Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro took issue with the fact the board will not include representatives from broader range of groups.

"It is extremely important we have a cross-section of experts on mining but people who are experts on the impacts of mining," said Bisaro on Feb. 11.

"Without representation from environmental and social representatives, the advice of the mining board will not reflect the broad public interest necessary to re-establish the social licence and performance standards the public rightly expects of industry," said Bromley.

He tabled letters from both Alternatives North and Ecology North asking for the inclusion of a broader range of representatives on the board.

"Ecology North isn't anti-development, we just want development to be done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way," Craig Scott, executive director of Ecology North, told Yellowknifer.

The all-volunteer board will be modeled on a similar body which has played a role in shaping policy in the Yukon. All appointments will be made at the minister's discretion in conjunction with NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines.

Ramsay said the government needs to do as much as it can to attract investment from the mining industry which was responsible for approximately half the NWT's $3.6 billion GDP last year.

He added that although social advocacy groups will not be invited to participate in the board, it will not have any decision making powers.

"It's an industry advisory board, it's not a social advocacy board," he said, in response to a question from Bisaro.

"We can't lose sight of the fact that this is an industry advisory panel and nothing more.

"We will populate it with people we will get information from that will help us develop a mining industry here in the Northwest Territories."

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