First Nation dealing with wildfires shocked outgoing B.C. government granted mining permits during crisis

Wildfires, road blocks and smoke are preventing Agnes William, 60, and about70 otherTsilhqot'inelders from returning to their home near Williams Lake, B.C.

She's been stuck in an Abbotsford hotel for the last week and the Canadian Forces is air-dropping supplies into her Xeni Gwet'in community for those unable to leave.

So when she heard the former B.C. government just days before they lost power issued the drilling permits for Taseko Mines'scontroversial New Prosperity mine, she said she was blind sided.

"It's really insulting, that's just a dirty way to do it,"she said from her hotel room.

In a written statement, the B.C. government saidthenotice of work decisions in this case the drilling permits, "are not political decisions and are made solely by the statutory decision maker, who, in this case, was a senior permitting inspector located in Kamloops."

In a lettertoTsilhqot'incommunities, Rick Adams, thesenior inspector withtheMinistry of Energy and Mines for the South Central Region saidheappreciatedthat the noticecame at a difficulttimegiven the wildfire situation.

However, he addedthat he made the permit decision last Friday and had to honour his previous commitment to providetimely notification of his decision.

BrianBattison, a spokesperson with Taseko Mines,says the application for thepermit was routine and made last November.

Normally, he said,these types of permitsrelated to field work areturned around in 60 days. But because of the depth of consultation between the provincial government and theTsilhqot'in Nation, it took 10 months.

"They knew this permit was coming ... and they have been preparing themselves for it for many months,"Battisonsaid.

'That was a shocker'

Roger Williams, chief of theXeniGwet'inNation says thenotice of permits granted came as a surprise to him.

"That was a shocker. This is frustrating, a lot of our family members are all over," he said, also from theAbbotsfordhotel.

The permits authorize 76 km of new or modified trails, 122 drill holes, 367 test pits dug by an excavator, and 20 km of seismic lines near Teztan Biny, also known as Fish Lake, and Nabas an area of profound cultural and spiritual importance that the Tsilhqot'in successfully fought to protect against two mine proposals.

The Tsilhqot'inNation staunchly opposes the open pit gold and copper mine slated to be constructedright in the middle of their territory,125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake.

TasekoMines says it's a significant project that wil help the economy.

Battisonsaid the mine will create $12.7 billion ofprovincial GDP during production it andit willemploy 650 people for about 20 years. He added the companywill spend, in that region, about $1,000,000 everyday.

Federal approval still needed

While the B.C. government green-lit the exploratory work to prepare the mine, it still needs approval from the federal government.

It has been rejected it twice already,but the company is challenging the decision in court. Meanwhile, the project hasbeen going through a provincial environmental review.

According to documents provided to the CBC, surveying could begin next week, and drilling could start by August 7.