AJAX – Council settles on plan for dealing with consultant’s report
Some re-jigging of meetings will give Kamloops City council a little additional time in which to make a decision on the Ajax mine.
That will involve a two-step process of receiving a final report from SLR Consultants on the KGHM Ajax environmental application, reading it for a few days and then coming up with a position.
The scheduling decision was made Tuesday after a notice of motion from Coun. Denis Walsh came up for debate. In the end, he didn’t get quite what he wanted but there’s now a little bit more wiggle room.
Walsh was concerned council wasn’t leaving itself enough time to digest the SLR report, give the public some time for feedback, and then debate and make a decision on what to recommend to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.
SLR hasn’t provided an update since last September. In April, the 180-day BCEAO review period was stalled at day 107 after KGHM asked for more time to answer questions that had arisen about its application. The review is expected to kick into gear again soon, after which council must finish up its own deliberations and make recommendations to the environment office.
Walsh’s motion proposed an immediate update from SLR before the review process restarts.
Council was told Tuesday some of the information from SLR will be confidential, making it awkward to bring council into the loop before the BCEAO review fires up again.
Walsh withdrew his notice of motion in favour of a followup meeting about a week after SLR presents its findings to council sometime between days 122-124. The council session will take place in council chambers between days 128-132 of the review.
So, council and the public will have about a week to digest the final report, with the deadline for getting a recommendation to the BCEAO set at day 135.
Staff expects to provide council with two options regarding its position on the mine: yes or no. Some conditions may be attached to either one.
It’s expected the two meetings will be held in council chambers on Tuesday mornings.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
-There’s gotta be better things to do for council and the City of Kamloops at large than this mine…Other things are slipping by as we consume ourselves…even though like America: They _are_ the elephant in the room (and have you ever had an elephant sit down at your dinner table to talk, say, politics or the like…? !
-Might as well get used to a couple’a broken chairs, while you’re at it….and hope it’s Not _Too_ Long. !).
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I am super glad that the city is taking this proposal seriously. It could be a major liability for them with regards to ground water and citizens who feel the city should be protecting them. This is the most important issue that the city is working on right now, in my opinion.
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So….as a taxpayer that helped pay for the SLR report when do I get to see it? Let’s not start making decsions like Trump does. I’d prefer to see the facts as written in the report, not someone’s interpretation of ‘alternative facts’!
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Both meetings will be open but it will be a tight squeeze indeed for the public to provide council with meaningful input with these timelines.
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KGHM/Ajax so far have received an 8 month extension to rework the 18,000 page application for an environmental permit, surely the citizens of Kamloops and Council can obtain a further two months from the Province in order to consider the SLK final report and hold a public vote on Ajax if the public are generally in favour of doing so. Not to extend more time to the City in these circumstances would be unfair and a legal challenge should be mounted. Milobar needs to get out of the way.
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