Dear Editor:
Public comment on a controversial report on the proposed Burnco mine in Howe Sound by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will be closed on Jan. 22.
The project to mine and process sand and gravel at McNab Creek, about 25 kilometres northwest of West Vancouver, is widely opposed. CEAA’s report, strategically released before Christmas, is seen as flawed and biased in favour of Burnco, a privately held Alberta firm.
“There is a general lack of trust in the assessment process,” Ruth Simons, head of the Future of Howe Sound Society, has said. The Sunshine Coast Regional District has also raised its concerns about the evaluation process as followed by both the CEAA and by the BC Environmental Assessment Office.
There is no official community plan covering the area north of Port Mellon, nor a comprehensive land use plan for the Howe Sound area.
In this void, and encouraged by lax mining and environmental regulations, Burnco is pushing hard to reintroduce mining and mineral processing into Howe Sound.
“Lack of trust,” “unfair,” “excluded,” “ignored,” “disrespectful,” “disregarded,” and “dismissed” are the key words picked up from the community on the Burnco federal and provincial environmental processes, said Ian Winn, the Sunshine Coast regional district director for West Howe Sound.
Burnco freely admits that it does not need the McNab aggregate, but sees it as a highly profitable, low-cost opportunity close to Vancouver. After all, it is an industrial site dating back 100 years, Burnco argues. In Burnco’s twisted logic, this means anything still goes here.
“Burnco is proposing an ecologically friendly operation at McNab Creek,” Burnco’s website states. That’s also nonsense.
Some common sense and political intervention is needed here. And Burnco needs to accept this is 2018.
This noisy eyesore project would destroy a valley forever, endanger wildlife and present a hazard to shipping and ferry traffic. It would be a nightmare for residents at McNab Creek, nearby children’s camps and other users and residents of Howe Sound.
Sadly, Burnco is determined to infest Howe Sound with this totally unnecessary mine that would scoop, dredge and grind up to four million tons of product a year for at least 16 years. Then it will be barged through fragile Howe Sound and Vancouver.
And when Burnco abandons its mess, it will leave a polluted quarry – for drinking, swimming and fishing, Burnco says. Burnco calls it a lake.
That’s Trump-grade fake news. Alternate facts. So let’s call it the Pinocchio Mine Project.
The email address for the CEAA report and how to comment is at: [email protected]. Copies of the report also are available for viewing at the North and West Vancouver, and Squamish public libraries.
Donald Townson
West Vancouver
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