Court halts B.C. mine project

A small northern B.C. First Nation has won a big legal battle against the province and a mining company, forcing a delay in coal project until the band is consulted further.

The West Moberly First Nation from the Chetwynd area, about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver took the province and Vancouver-based First Coal Corp. to court, arguing that development activity was threatening the survival of the already endangered Burnt Pine caribou herd.

The band argued that the Crown failed to adequately consult them about the mining activity, as required under their 1899 Treaty No. 8, guaranteeing the West Moberly hunting rights in the area.

The court agreed, and ordered a 90-day stay to further activity.

"I have found that although the Crown undertook consultation, the consultation was not sufficiently meaningful, and the accommodation put in place was not reasonable," B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Williamson said in his written reasons, released Monday.

While the Crown did recognize its duty to consult, it failed to do so, he found.

Caribou in decline

The judge also noted that there is currently no plan in place for the protection and rehabilitation of the Burnt Pine herd, which is a "failure to accommodate reasonably." He ordered the Crown to "proceed expeditiously" to put a protection plan in place.

Chief Roland Willson has said that thousands of caribou used to roam the province's northeast but that is no longer the case.

The B.C. government has moved previously to protect dwindling Rocky Mountain Caribou herds by limiting logging and road building activities in 2.2 million hectares of land.

The West Moberly argue that the mining activity has affected the already threatened Burnt Pine herd in the band's traditional territories, where their 1899 treaty guarantees them the right to hunt caribou.

First Coal was granted a permit last September to extract 50,000 tonnes of area coal as a test sample.

The company has said it planned to have its mine in production by the end of this year, producing 245,000 tonnes of coal, and that working with local First Nations toward that was a priority.

The company website says First Coal has developed a Burnt Pine Caribou Stewardship Group, which involves caribou specialists.

But the court found the measures taken by the company and the province did not meet the duty to consult or accommodate the West Moberly.

"I conclude that a balancing of the treaty rights of Native peoples with the rights of the public generally, including the development of resources for the benefit of the community as a whole, is not achieved if caribou herds in the affected territories are extirpated," Williamson wrote in his reasons.