Company offers brighter future, not land Armageddon
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sometimes tough decisions need to be made.
Other times decisions are made to look tougher than they actually are, thanks to the spin put out by groups with a vested interest in the outcome.
So it is right now with the Baker Lake concerned citizens committee's attempts to block Areva Resources Canada Inc.'s development of a uranium mine about 80 kilometres west of Baker.
Some developments have been nothing short of incredulous, to say the least.
We all know the best way to attract a crowd in the Kivalliq, no matter what the subject, is to offer free stuff.
We also know opinions solicited in this manner are suspect at best.
So, the concerned citizens committee can honk its horn all it wants about 60 per cent of the people showing up to a public meeting submitting negative comments about uranium mining.
The majority of them - reportedly close to 70 people - likely had no inclination to voice an opinion at all until the Hamlet of Baker Lake provided the Hunters and Trappers Organization with $1,000 to help with the process of gathering public comments.
What an eloquent way of describing the purchase of prizes to buy opinions.
The makeup of the folks who showed up also constituted somewhat of a stacked deck, with many being hunters, fishers and elders.
Areva's proposal is being screened by the Nunavut Impact Review Board to decide whether it should be subject to a full environmental review.
Led by environmental activist Joan Scottie, the concerned citizens committee also wants an investigation into how the Nunavut Planning Commission decided Areva's proposal passed every stipulation in the Keewatin Regional Land Use Plan.
The committee says Areva's proposal should be proven to be approved by the people of the region.
Its suggestion to resolve the issue once and for all is to hold a plebiscite.
Those opposed to uranium mining also question why the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Hamlet of Baker Lake - which both support the Areva proposal - should be looked upon as the voice of the people.
Well, that's why we vote for elected bodies to deal with such matters.
If you don't trust elected officials to deal with issues, and want plebiscites conducted on every matter that deals with public interest, why have elected representatives at all?
Much of the rhetoric being used by the committee in regards to tailings and contamination is decades old.
Yes, there was a time the word of a mining company wasn't worth much, but those days are gone because of severe restrictions, numerous review processes and site monitoring the companies must now adhere to.
Areva's proposal will help Baker evolve and prosper, if it ever reaches fruition.
Elders can pine for things to stay the same, and hunters and fishers can want their agendas followed, but that won't help young families own their own homes and become financially stable.
That comes with well paying, secure jobs with solid benefit packages and that's what Areva will be offering.
In fact, Areva is offering a brighter future in a monitored environment that respects the land and all those dependent upon it.
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2009-03/mar2_09edit.html
Commentaires
I think that we should have learned enough at this point, and realize that these things are too harmful to Inuit to accept; if mines and oil rigs are opened and in action up here, theres no stopping 100 more mines and oil rigs to take over lands, attracting traffic in our waters, and contibuting to the very thing that is threatening our enviornment, and threatening us as a people.
Maybe we should reconsider the reality of OUR definition ofwealth; our land and our animals are OUR resources, not money.
And besides, i think that there are many other ways to create "wealth" that Greer's life seems to depend on, without allowing these "money machines" to be interfering with us as a PEOPLE:
- We could ask for our monies from the century of commercial whaling by european countries; a single whale would be worth 12,000 to 15,000 in profit, and about-say-500,000 to 1,000,000 whales...you do the math.
- invest our monies and current resourses into self-sustaining and small-scale social programming for INUIT. This is especially important because it would better serve families and us as a PEOPLE to sustain ourselves, and with the guidance of our elders to ensure that our ways and culture survive. And also secure OUR use of this land in meaningful and self sustaining methods to live in the north. This will shed light on the "Arctic Sovergnty - Use it or Lose it" sort of attitude that the federal government made very clear.
We should all take into consideration the truth that once these things take effect, these mines and oil rigs, it will be another thing that distracts us from the true essence of INUIT LIFE, and create another vehicle in which our environment, lands and animals become degraded and destroyed.
Also, as Greer implies, all this sounds like a really sweet deal; jobs, money, etc. So we must assert the consideration to not only our lands and animals, but our ways as INUIT. We, as a people, are extremely vulnurable to forgetting and losing our sense of connection to this land, and if these mines and oil programs take hold, we are ever closer to losing ourselves entirely.
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