Provoking Peel court fight bad for mining biz

The Yukon government is hurting, not helping, the mining industry with its controversial position on the Peel land use plan, two Yukon environmental groups say.

In a news release issued just before Vancouver’s four-day Mineral Exploration Roundup started on Monday, the two groups said the government seems to be provoking a legal battle over the Peel and “putting certainty for the mining industry at risk.”

A land use plan for the Yukon portion of the transboundary watershed is in the final stages.

After more than six years of research and consultation, the Peel planning commission – as mandated by the Yukon’s treaty, the Umbrella Final Agreement - produced a final recommended plan in 2011. It protects 80 per cent of the watershed while allowing development in the other 20 per cent.

The government doesn’t like the commission’s plan so three months ago it released a new proposal that would protect none of the watershed, instead “actively managing” industrial activity such as mining and new roads.

“The Umbrella Final Agreement, which is Yukon law, lays out clearly how the land use planning process is supposed to go,” said Yukon Conservation Society executive director Karen Baltgailis in the release.

“Yukon government cannot, at this late stage in the process, propose a brand new plan that they’ve created behind closed doors with no input from affected First Nations or the public,” she said.

Land use plans are supposed to create certainty for miners and other land users so they know where they can and cannot operate, said Gill Cracknell, executive director of CPAWS-Yukon.

“But if Yukon government rejects the democratically-produced final recommended plan and tries to replace it with ‘active management’ of industry throughout the watershed, they will be creating uncertainty,” she said.

“If the final recommended plan for the Peel watershed is accepted, 20 per cent of the Peel could see some mining activity. If the Yukon government continues on its current course, 100 per cent will most likely be tied up in the courts for years.”

The government’s public consultation on the Peel plan ends Feb. 25. Following that it will begin negotiations with the First Nation governments with land in the watershed.