A Conservative government will continue to support mining operations in Canada and work with our provincial counterparts to balance industry and environmental concerns. As for the Prosperity mine project, the Government of Canada took into consideration the conclusions of the federal review panel report and agreed with the panel’s concerns about the environmental impact of the project.
The government has rendered a final decision on the original application. However, as we have said in the past, if the proponent is interested in proceeding in a way that would respect the environmental concerns that were raised by the assessment they are free to submit another proposal, which will be considered.
The Prosperity mine project failed to pass a comprehensive independent environmental assessment and failed to meet the interests of First Nations and concerned community members. Despite hard lobbying from Conservative MPs to overturn the assessment, it was the right decision to not approve the project.
Protecting our natural environment is integral to the long-term economic prosperity of our resource-rich province and to the long-term availability of quality jobs.
The federal government should approve the Prosperity mine project once it meets the standards established by the federal environmental assessment process. The initial proposal from the project proponent was found to have not met these standards. However, if the proponent wishes to revise their proposal to address the shortcomings that were identified during that review process, the federal regulators should take a second look.
- The Liberal and NDP answers to the question “What corporate tax rate is appropriate to ensure that Canada can attract more foreign investment?” were transposed in issue 1121 (April 19-25).