Shucking Oysters: Blind Ambition
By Alex Allen
If you think the BC NDP cares about the environment, think again. They have been stuck on rinse and repeat with resource extraction as the main economic driver for years. Eby displays no courage, no imagination, no thought or care for future generations, let alone his three young children. Despite concerns from Indigenous leaders, opposition parties and municipalities, the BC NDP are still hell-bent on fast-tracking major projects, in particular, mining.
Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, would allow Eby sweeping powers to designate projects of “provincial significance,” customize environmental assessments, turbo charge permits and override municipal concerns. Eby said it’s necessary to help get things done quickly in a world of uncertainty caused by Trump. Sorry, opportunity knocked. This is just another example of a pernicious shift that has made the NDP more moderate, overly corporate-friendly, and tightly run by a clique of operatives.
Of course, the mining industry is applauding this controversial bill. Yet research shows that fast tracking is no guarantee that they will all materialize. Simon Fraser University associate professor Rosemary Collard, co-author of a recent study of 27 BC mining projects, granted environmental assessment certificates since 1995 and projected to open by 2022, showed that 20 failed to do so. In fact, regulation was a factor in only three of the projects. The mines that did become operational, notably “under performed economically compared to what their forecast said in their environmental assessment.”
Not surprisingly, the BC Fraser Institute feels that fast tracking applications is not enough. The Institute says that the government needs to address the negative climate among investors. It seems that big mining corporations and their shareholders have issues with having to consult with First Nations. This pesky UNDRIP law of free, prior and informed consent, just makes it so cumbersome and time-consuming.
When questioned about the fast track process, the premier’s office replied with usual clarity, that “the projects will be focusing on reducing regulatory complexity with a focus on troubleshooting issues to support the selected major projects with significant potential to create jobs.”
Of the 18 mines going through the express lane: Red Chris is owned by Newmont Corporation, a Colorado-based gold-mining giant, while Eskay Creek is owned by Skeena Resources, in partnership with Tahltan Territory, and a majority owned by a group of US investors. When asked whether it had considered US ownership when identifying projects to expedite, the premier’s office said it was “focused on projects that create good paying jobs in BC that can help support families.” Eby implores us not to buy American liquor or travel south, but it’s OK for him to move full-speed ahead with this?
Among the biggest multinational corporations with interests in BC are those building fossil fuel infrastructure to ship gas through pipelines and liquefy on the coast for export overseas. Only one LNG project made the premier’s list: Cedar LNG, a partnership between the Haisla Nation and Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation. Pembina have partnered on many projects with the US private-equity and investment firm KKR. In January, the US Department of Justice accused KKR of having a “culture of noncompliance” for decades and now the firm is facing a $650 million lawsuit for anti-trust violations.
But among those most anxious for an upgraded power supply is Texas-based Western LNG, who owns both the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line – a partnership with the Nisga’a Nation – and the adjoining Ksi Lisims LNG export terminal. In December, Western LNG announced significant investment by Blackstone, a US private equity firm, headed by longtime Trump adviser Stephen Schwarzman. Both men have much in common, having made millions being slum lords, laundering money, and committing fraud.
Quoted in The Tyee, Nikki Skuce, co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform shared: “While BC’s list highlights energy security, clean energy and critical minerals – meaning materials required in the transition to renewable energy – in some cases the headings stretch their definitions.” Critical minerals are metals such as copper, nickel and molybdenum, all needed for the production of “green things” like electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. (Oddly, the nasty one, lithium, is noticeably absent from the list.)
Eskay Creek, is mining for silver and gold – neither of which are critical minerals. “All of the investors who are trying to get these big gold projects off the ground are all licking their lips because of the financial instability created by Trump,” Skuce said. “That’s driving demand for gold and creating justification for large gold mines, even if it doesn’t provide critical minerals necessary for the renewable energy transition.”
This year’s service plan made no mention of the environment, with the BC Government actually cutting funding within the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. While the budget increased investments in permitting for resource development, it cut over $18 million from the land-use planning/programs budget that identify and address the cumulative effects of development.
Governments and corporations all seem to have forgotten the meaning of diminishing returns, unintended consequences, and the finite nature of resources. Chris Hedges wrote years ago in The World As It Is, that “these political and corporate masters are driven by a craven desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of human life.” The leaders of these resource extracting companies determine our fate; they are not endowed with basic human decency or compassion. From human beings to the natural environment, we are all “exploitable commodities.” And just you wait, the scouring has just begun….
