August
20, 2004
NIRB's no pushover
In refusing this month to issue a certificate to Miramar Mining Corp. for its
Doris North gold mine, the Nunavut Impact Review Board has made one thing clear:
it's no pushover.
Until now, anti-mining advocates have been skeptical about the board's willingness
to get tough with mining companies. Some have intimated, in whispered, off-the-record
comments, that the review board is a lightweight body, dominated by Kitikmeot-based
business interests, likely to rubber-stamp any development application that
comes its way.
But this group of so-called lightweights has now told Miramar that its plans
for the Doris North gold mine aren't good enough. They've told Miramar to produce
a plan for monitoring and protecting wildlife, to provide more information about
tailings disposal, to co-operate more on socio-economic issues, along with other
demands. At the same time, they've invited the company to re-apply.
There's no doubt that this decision comes as a nasty surprise for Miramar,
a small, hard-up firm based in Vancouver that also owns two dying gold mines
in Yellowknife. This past May, Miramar's CEO, Tony Walsh, bragged to an audience
of stock analysts that, "We are not aware of any issue that's been raised
to date that would prevent us from permitting the Doris North."
But the company's stock price is tanking already. This Tuesday, the company's
shares dropped 18 per cent, as nervous investors reacted to the uncertainty
created by the review board's decision, in spite of Tony Walsh's declaration
that Miramar is already revising its permit application.
The small Doris North project is just the first step in Miramar's step-by-step,
pay-as-you-go plan for developing its Hope Bay sites in the western Kitikmeot
region. They want to start with a small two-year mine at Doris North, whose
small but rich ore body is expected to generate a whopping 136 per cent return
on investment, and $69 million in income. Miramar would then use that cash to
develop at least two bigger sites in the area.
So by imposing a delay on Doris North, the review is stalling a whole chain
of related mining projects — not the sort of action you would expect from
a pushover board.
This, in turn, sends a clear message to all the groups and individuals who
are likely to get involved in environmental assessments of other Nunavut-based
projects, such as the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project, and the proposed
Meadowbank gold mine.
Remember when environmentalists and pro-mining advocates argued with each other
last year about who should control an environmental assessment of the Bathurst
Inlet Port and Road Project?
Project supporters — including virtually all of Nunavut's political organizations
— said the review should be done by the Nunavut Impact Review Board: a
"made-in-Nunavut review." Project skeptics, on the other hand, said
the review should be done by a federally-appointed panel - saying the review
board doesn't have the capacity to do the job. Some quietly suggested that the
board would cave in to Kitikmeot business interests.
This week, the review board proved them wrong. It's a decision that should
inspire confidence in those who want a thorough probe of the Bathurst Inlet
project, and others like it.
But the various board and government departments that comprise Nunavut's convoluted
system for protecting the environment face big challenges for the future.
It's still a confused, bewildering system, stuffed with virtually anonymous
bureaucratic agencies. Few people actually understand it, including people in
the mining industry and the Inuit people whose interests it's supposed to protect.
Miramar waited 26 months to learn that their plan isn't good enough. That's
far too much time. JB
August
13, 2004
The North defines Canada?
“I love the North,” Paul Martin declared, not long after his feet
hit the tarmac in front of Iqaluit’s airport building this past Tuesday
evening. “The North is an important part of what defines us as Canadians...”
The prime minister is not alone in harbouring these sentiments. Most Canadians
love to say they love the North.
And most Canadians, especially those who have never been here, love to say
it’s what defines us Canadians, especially visiting politicians who think
it’s what we want to hear.
But do they really mean it? And do they understand what they’re saying?
The idea of Canada as an essentially “northern” nation is an old
construct.
Since the 19th century, Canadians of European descent have never quite figured
out the difference between Canadians and the people of the United States, Great
Britain and other places. And we’ve never quite figured out what the people
of our diverse regions hold in common, other than our undying need to complain
about each other. Canada is a country that has never quite managed to make that
big leap from adolescence into full adulthood.
So whenever Canadians get into a nationalistic mood, they always invoke the
pure, untainted romantic hinterland of their imagination, the “North,”
an adventurous place where the struggle against nature makes you strong and
pure. Canada’s possession of the North, in some mystical sense that no
one has ever been able to explain, is what makes Canada Canadian.
Rubbish. In reality, the North is not what defines Canada. In reality, the
North is everything that Canada is not.
Canada is an urban country. An overwhelming majority of Canadians live in crowded
cities and suburbs, almost within sight of the U.S. border, enveloped in concrete,
smog and unbounded wealth. Most Canadians couldn’t find Nunavut on a map
if you paid them.
In contrast, the regions that make up the North — the three territories,
Labrador, Nunavik, and the northern regions of Ontario and the western provinces
— are rural places. Most northerners live in tiny villages and small towns,
connected now to the south by electronic media, but still isolated by our hideously
expensive air fares and energy costs.
Canada is also an affluent country with low unemployment, mostly, and in recent
years, a rapid rate of wealth creation, low crime rates, and manageable social
problems.
But the North, with some exceptions, is a place of poverty, high crime, and
unmanageable social problems. Much of the wealth that is created here leaks
into the pockets of southerners. There’s nothing pure and untainted about
the modern North. It’s a place of struggle, not against nature, but against
our all-too-human flaws, and the ignorance of an often well-meaning but blundering
government in Ottawa whose agenda is dominated by urban obsessions.
We don’t doubt Paul Martin’s sincerity. As politicians go, the man’s
honest.
But if he truly “loves the North” then he’ll make his government
pay more attention to what we actually need. If the North “defines us as
Canadians,” then Canadians had better pay more attention to us. The people
of the North, especially Nunavut, deserve to be properly housed, to be properly
cared for when we are sick, and to be given the tools to develop a stronger
economy.
We welcome the prime minister to the North, and we thank the three northern
MPs for making his tour possible. Most of all, we hope his time here will inspire
him to take our issues seriously. JB
August
6, 2004
Violence makes Nunavut unique
It's unfortunate that Statistics
Canada issues its annual roundup of national crime numbers during the depths
of summer, when many of Nunavut's decision-makers are not at their desks and
everyone else is enjoying the weather.
It makes it that much easier
to pretend that Nunavut doesn't have a crime problem, especially with crimes
of violence. It makes it that much easier for territorial and community leaders
to evade reality, and to evade discussion of the life-and-death issues they're
too scared, or too embarrassed to face.
Like the scarred and battered
faces of Nunavut's violent crime victims, the raw numbers do not lie. And the
numerous issues they raise will not go away.
In 1999, 1,362 person were
charged with criminal offences in Nunavut. In 2002, that number had grown to
2,180 and in 2003 rose to 2,333 persons. Given that Nunavut's population last
year stood at slightly less than 30,000 people, this is an enormous proportion
of the population.
It represents 1,000 more
names on court dockets throughout the territory, 1,000 more people in need of
legal-aid lawyers, and 1,000 more case-files to be managed by over-burdened
Crown prosecutors and judges. It represents many more embittered and damaged
victims.
And, of course, it represents
bigger budgets for law enforcement. In 2003, the RCMP's "V" division
spent almost $31 million on its operations in Nunavut, compared with $21 million
in 2001, 70 per cent of which is paid by the Nunavut government. Not surprisingly,
the RCMP is seeking more money through its next contract with the GN. Health
is not the only area of territorial government whose costs are escalating.
Consider also that large
numbers of those people are charged with crimes of violence against other persons.
In 1999, 630 persons were charged with violent crimes. In 2003, that number
rose to 1,047.
These are the kinds of
offenders who are most likely to end up with jail sentences if convicted - at
least, that's what most people expect. But the number of correctional centre
spaces in Nunavut does not appear to be increasing at the same pace.
That's likely why we're
seeing greater use of house-arrest and probation orders, even for petty sex-offenders
and wife-beaters, as well as the use of on-the-land "corrections camps."
It's not difficult to conclude that the real motivation behind these measures
is the need to control costs - not rehabilitation, or better programs for offenders.
It's violence, however,
that makes Nunavut unique. Nunavut is the only jurisdiction in Canada where
the rate of violent crime is greater than the rate of property crime. In nearly
all other jurisdictions, the rate of property crime is at least three times
greater than the rate of violent crime. But not in Nunavut, where the ratio
is nearly reversed.
The causes are obvious:
alcohol and drug abuse, and a growing culture of toleration and excuse-making
for violence and abuse. It's painfully clear that alcohol abuse especially has
grown totally out of control. Only the RCMP seem willing to acknowledge this
and attempt to do something about it.
There are numerous people
who deny this reality, and it's not hard to understand why. Most of the violence
in Nunavut is private and domestic. It takes place behind closed doors, and
only occasionally spills out into public places. Nunavut's streets are safe.
It's inside the home where the weak and the vulnerable face the greatest dangers.
All this violence used
to produce bruises and scars, broken bones, broken people and broken families
- but the victims usually survived.
Now it's producing dead
bodies. At least two, and possibly three, of the four homicides reported in
Nunavut this year were domestic in nature. The wounds that these tragedies inflict
on families and communities are life-long, inspiring anger, fear and bitterness.
There's no point in pretending
that there are easy "solutions" to Nunavut's rate of violent crime.
There rarely are any. Governments can sometimes nurture social change, but they
can't legislate it, or use policies and programs to make it happen. It will
happen person by person, slowly, and only when more people adopt better values,
and learn to make their actions fit them. JB
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