BABY, YOU’VE CHANGED!
TUESDAY
Eight-month-old Summer Meger and 34 other babies (and their parents) took part in the fourth annual multi-city attempt to set a Guinness World Record for most babies being changed into cloth diapers at on time. The Saturday, April 20, event was held at the Southwest Community Church in Sahali. The gathering at the church comprised one of 285 groups in 17 countries who participated in the mass diaper-changing event, created to raise the profile of cloth diapers, which produce less waste and are seen by some parents as a more natural solution than their disposable counterparts. Melissa Welsh/KTW
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THIS WEEK
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Advisory group wants federal review on Ajax By Andrea Klassen STAFF REPORTER andrea@kamloopsthisweek.com
They were meant to provide community input during the environmental-assessment process for the proposed Ajax copper and gold mine. But, after 15 months of meetings, members of a government-appointed community-advisory group are calling for a complete revamp of the way mines are approved in B.C. “The environmental process is not set up to deal with a mine that’s going to be placed inside a city — or, at least partially inside a city — and those flaws in the process are glaring,” said Dr. Twila Burgmann, a gastroenterologist who is a member of the advisory group on behalf of the
Aberdeen Community Association. Members of the group, whose meetings are typically held behind closed doors, released a joint statement on Monday, April 22, airing concerns about the review process. The group also called on the federal government to appoint a review panel for the project. Reading from a prepared statement, member Gina Morris said because the application-information requirements Ajax will be asked to meet have changed so much since the last public comment session over a year ago, the group asked for another round of community input. The environmentalassessment office rejected the request.
Group member John Schleiermacher, who represents the Thompson Watershed Coalition, said the public needs to know there are issues Ajax’s proponents won’t be required to address to receive an environmental certificate. Members of the community-advisory group are bound by a confidentiality agreement, which limits what specifics they can discuss, Schleiermacher said, noting gaps in the requirements are numerous. “There were 1,465 items that were put through what they call the tracking table and, when I see the latest revision — which is the F, so it’s been revised many times — I don’t see those addressed.” One concern, mentioned in a letter the
Gina Morris (left) reads a statement from the Kamloops Community Advisory Group outside of Pacific Way elementary on Monday, April 22. The group spent 15 months working with B.C.’s environmental-assessment office on the Ajax mine, but feels the process won’t address all conerns. Andrea Klassen/KTW
group sent to federal Environment Minister Peter Kent last week is that a health assessment on the mine may not factor in all the metals found in rock at the mine site. Burgmann said that’s not her only issue with the health assessment, which she wants to see done independently, rather than by KGHM. “One of the big concerns of Kamloopsians is our health and, if that’s not being addressed
properly, you can imagine the other concerns we have that are also not being addressed properly,” she said. Burgmann said the environmental-assessment office hasn’t given the group much explanation as to why some of its concerns aren’t appearing on the list of issues Ajax must address. “It’s a process, that’s all we’re told. Wait for the final draft, that’s also what we’re told,” she said.
Schleiermacher said the group has lost confidence in the province’s assessment process and wants to see Ajax held to the higher standard of a panel review. While the federal government has in the past opted not to give the project that level of scrutiny, Schleiermacher hopes it will reconsider. An Environment Canada staffer told KTW the ministry would follow up on the group’s letter. Kamloops-North
Thompson MLA and provincial Environment Minister Terry Lake believes the assessment process for Ajax is up to standard, opining that the group’s decision to call a press conference “seems more like a political stunt.” Lake said the group should be working with the environmental-assessment office to address its concerns. “Confrontation isn’t a way to improve the process, I don’t think,” he said. Lake said the group’s timing — in the middle of a provincial election campaign — is concerning. “We have to be careful that we’re not just having people that are against the mine fundamentally and then using this as a way to discredit the process,” he said.
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