For Immediate Release
January 16, 2002
First Nations Tell PCB Company to Leave the Territory
Timiskaming Reserve – The First Nations of the
Timiskaming region will not allow the building of a massive new PCB
incinerator near Kirkland Lake, Ontario. That was the blunt message
delivered by Chief Daniel Chief of Timsikaming First Nation to
representatives of Bennett Environmental, a company looking to import
and burn hazardous waste from across North America and other parts of
the world. If approved by Ontario’s MOE it would be the largest
incinerator of its kind in Canada.
“We are asking Bennett Environmental to respect
the wishes of the First Nations of this territory and leave before
this process goes any further,” said Chief Daniel Chief.
“The cost in time, energy and money will be great for all sides
if Bennett tries to proceed. But be rest assured, the First Nations
of this region will do what is necessary to protect our lands.”
Chief Daniel Chief delivered the message on Tuesday
January 15th at a community meeting attended by representatives of
Bennett Environmental. The company had come to the community as part
of their fundamental obligation under the terms of Ontario’s EA
process to make the necessary steps to ensure there would be no
impacts from the incinerator on the traditional hunting and fishing
grounds of the Timiskaming First Nation.
Daniel Chief, however, pointed out that Bennett’s
appearance in the community, on the very last day of the public
comment period for the EA, showed how the company had failed in its
stated obligations.
“Our community has learned to its great cost that
unless we are partners in determining the process, we will always
lose. And over this last century and a half, we have lost too much.
We are not willing to risk losing anymore.”
Timiskaming First Nation gained a national reputation
for its efforts to stop the Adams Mine mega dump. The community is
now in consultations with other First Nations to prepare a
broad-based strategy to stop the incinerator from proceeding.
The following is the statement made by Chief
Daniel Chief to representatives from Bennett Environmental:
In December 2000, Timiskaming First Nation wrote the
Ministry of Environment and made it clear that we would not sit on
the sidelines while a project of this magnitude, with the potential
to seriously impact our traditional hunting and fishing
grounds, was assessed and approved by Ontario’s Ministry of Environment.
We made it clear to the MOE that the Crown had a legal
obligation, as defined by the Supreme Court Delgamuukw decision, to
consult with First Nations about infringements and impacts on our
territory. This is a duty that cannot be delegated to a Third party,
in this case the proponent.
We received no response from the Crown to this letter.
They simply passed our letter onto the proponent. The response we
received from Mr. Ponn (dated February 8th) did not address the
issues we laid out in our letter, and it did not suffice as a
response to a letter directed toward the Crown.
On February 28th we wrote the Ministry of Environment
a second time outlining our fundamental right to be consulted.
As a result of this letter, the proponent agreed to
include in their Draft Terms of Reference the promise to “make
all reasonable efforts to determine any health and safety issues due
to the proposed undertaking affecting the Timiskaming First Nations
and the potential impacts on the hunting and fishing grounds of the
Timiskaming First Nations.” Further, Bennett promised to address
these issues in the development of the Environmental Assessment Act.
It has been nearly a year since Bennett made this
promise. In that time, other than a log of three phone calls to our
chief, we find no efforts to consult, listen to or take direction
from our traditional knowledge of this land base. How, we ask
ourselves, could Bennett ensure the “health and safety”of
our traditional way of life if they make no attempt to
comprehensively access and integrate our traditional knowledge of the territory?
Now on the very last day of the Comment period for the
EA, the proponent has come to our community. They have not come to
consult but to give us a presentation.
Having seen the Draft EA documents, we see that
Bennett has only promised to “inform” First Nations in the
territory of their plans. What we are being asked to do tonight is to
sit through a presentation that will then be later used to show that
Bennett has fulfilled its obligation to our people.
This is not sufficient. Our community has learned to
its great cost, that unless we are partners in determining the
process, we will always lose. And over this last century and a half,
we have lost too much. We are not willing to risk losing any more.
Therefore, our position is very simple. We do not want
this process to continue. We will not give our consent to the
creation of a hazardous waste incinerator that has the potential to
damage our traditional way of life.
We are in consultation with other First Nations who
might be impacted by this proposal. We will work with other Native
and Non-Native neighbours to stop this proposal.
We are asking Bennett Environmental to respect the
wishes of the First Nations of this territory. The cost in time,
energy and money will be great for all sides. But in the end, be rest
assured, the First Nations of this region will do our part to ensure
this threat is not realized.
In other words, no amount of technical jargon is going
to convince us that it is safe to import and then incinerate PCBs on
our traditional territory, or anywhere else for that matter.
We will not allow it now or in the future. So I
can’t see the purpose of us listening to an hour or two of
unnecessary presentations. I apologize to those of you who took the
time to come all the way out here this evening.
Meegwitch
Daniel Chief
Chief of Timiskaming First Nation
Unsurrendered Algonquin Territory
.