‘Comforting’ that politicians are coming around on Ajax review

It would seem our politicians are coming around. In Ottawa yesterday, Peter Milobar and MP Cathy McLeod asked Environment Minister Peter Kent to implement a federal panel review for the Ajax mine project.

As I mentioned in a previous post, neither Milobar nor McLeod has been enthusiastic about a panel review. The only thing making this delegation complete would have been to take MLA and B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake with them — he doesn’t want the federal panel review either.

Just so we’re clear on where Milobar and McLeod now stand:

The mayor voted against the review when the matter came up at council. Our story explained it this way: “Milobar voted against it. He said he wasn’t opposed to the federal review but believed it was too early in the process to be asking for one… Milobar said it’s a little early in the information gathering stage to rush to a review panel.”

A couple of weeks later, he decided to go with the flow, voting for the review when it came up again at a Thompson-Nicola Region board meeting.

McLeod? On Oct. 6 she was quoted in the Daily News as a reluctant participant: “Kamloops MP Cathy McLeod said she’s willing to ask Environment Minister Peter Kent for a panel review on Ajax Mine, although she doesn’t share concerns expressed by Kamloops council.

“McLeod said while she’s willing to take the City’s concerns to Kent, she doesn’t believe that Ajax requires a review panel.

“’I think they’d (council) be appropriate to wait until some more concerns are answered.’”

That was her last public position on the issue. However, comforting to know that she didn’t hedge in the letter she presented to Kent yesterday. At the end of the three-page letter to Kent, she wrote:

“Finally, the proximity of the mining site is having the most obvious and profound effect on the local population. Fears about the size of the mine (at 2,5000 hectares it dwarfs the current mine infrastructure present in part of the proposed site).  The impact the mine may have on property values, health and safety, noise, air quality and tourism all cause local constituents to demand the most regorous possible process. Again, the perception is that the best process would be a federal review panel process.

“This fact, more than any other, in combination with clear federal jurisdiction over some aspect of the EA, cause me to conclude that the best way forward is a panel review process.”

As for Milobar, he had this to say Thursday:

“After meeting with Minister Kent, I have every confidence that the Ajax file is receiving full scrutiny. I look forward to continuing to work with Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans around next steps of this process.”

Kent, on the one hand, tells the KAPA that there’s no need for a federal review, then tells the City delegation he’ll give it full attention. Maybe he’s just joining the crowd in “coming around.”

ANXIOUS TO GET GOING….. Donovan Cavers is in such a hurry to get on with the job that he forgets he isn’t a City councillor quite yet. He won’t be sworn in until Monday night but, since the election, he’s been signing himself as “Kamloops City Councillor.”