Rothenburger — Fog swirls outside and inside on Ajax night
COLUMN — Outside, heavy fog draped itself on Aberdeen like swaddling clothes. Inside, in the ballroom of the Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre, 50 or so people huddled around poster displays and scale models, trying to unravel the riddle that is Ajax.
Across the hall in the Columbia Room, a half dozen staff members from the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, up from the Coast, girded themselves for the third hour-long workshop of the day, calling it Environmental Assessment 101.
Tracy James, a project assessment manager, introduced her colleagues and told the two dozen attendees that the object of the class was to explain the various stages of an environmental assessment, not necessarily to talk about Ajax.
She pointed out, though, that Ajax is at the pre-application phase, wherein the EAO and its counterparts in the federal government establish the “information requirements” for KGHM’s mine application. Public consultation is part of the process.
After a review of the phases, those sitting at the tables were invited to write down questions for the bureaucrats.
I took a note card from the table and scribbled, “Why aren’t the Community Advisory Group & Technical Working Group meetings open?”
“Anyone want to ask the first question?”
I raised my hand, and read my question into the microphone. I added the word “secret.”
Scott Bailey, who has become the next thing to a household name in connection with Ajax, fielded it. Baily is an executive project director who is in charge of the Ajax file for the Environmental Assessment Office.
He’s the one who writes letters to City council and takes most of the heat when people get upset with the assessment process on Ajax.
‘’’Secret’ isn’t really a word that I would use,” he said, adding that the community advisory group invites media to come after its meetings and ask questions if they want. Allowing the public at the meetings would make them too big and hamper engagement, said Bailey.
While minutes of the meetings aren’t issued, notes are published online.
With respect to the Technical Working Group, which includes representatives from government and aboriginal stakeholders, Bailey said some of the information discussed is confidential.
I said I wasn’t talking about the public participating as members of the community advisory group, only being allowed to attend as observers. I said confidential information could be handled separately in camera, as public bodies do it.
He thanked me for my suggestion.
I’ve never understood why a process that is supposed to be consultative, especially one that deals with such an important and controversial project, has to be so tightly managed and so light on open debate.
I think the EA 101 idea was helpful, and I suppose having another open house on Ajax never hurts, but I doubt much changed during the past two days.
Several people I spoke with on Wednesday night said they found the EA 101 workshops helpful and interesting but short on the details they wanted most — assurances about Ajax.
The fog still swirls.
armchairmayor@gmail.com
ArmchairMayor.ca 
The only assurance that would satisfy a group of people is that Ajax go away. .
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Yes, indeed. This project should never have been entertained in the first place!
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The assessment process is simply a game where the proponent tries to get past all the obstacles and reach the finish line. What most people don’t know is that it is a game where proponents rarely lose, unless they choose to stop playing at some point. From what I understand, recommendations at the BC EAO are based on data, consultations with experts, and cold, scientific “facts”. But of course there is more to it than this — there are political pressures and expectations lurking in the background. Apart from this, scientific facts should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m reminded of a Kieslowski’s film (a Polish one) I saw 25 years ago, which was the first film is his “Decalogue” series. A boy and his dad use a computer to calculate the max. weight tolerance for the ice on their local pond. After calculating that the ice will support three times the boys weight, the dad gives his son permission to skate on the pond. The next day, the boy tragically breaks through the ice and drowns.
For me, this sums up the problem with the assessment process in our case — science is important, but there needs to be more respect for the unknown. Regardless of what data tells you and what expert advice can provide, there are risks, and one should be asking whether any risk for 90,000 people is acceptable.
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They are so tightly managed and so light on open debate because the more people know about the process the more people would realize how much of a farce the whole process really is. I know you know that but here I said it.
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