Mining and nature must co-exist

PREMIER Doug Ford has plans initiated more improvement plans for Ontario, proposing changes to the Mining Act, in order to secure a supply chain in Northern Ontario for minerals essential to high-tech products.

Indigenous People have waited for multiple decades for both hydro and drinkable water. Hydro dams flooded their land yet the electricity produced did not flow to their communities. Boil water advisories remain.

Suddenly, there is deep concern to get hydro to remote communities. Why? The premier of Ontario is desperate to access the minerals on the land.

Canada must cut its greenhouse gas emissions target by 2030, hence the government's push for electricity development and added inducement of internet.

But no push for drinkable water.

When Premier Ford boasted his proposal to withdraw minerals from the land he forgot one thing, it's not his land. Its Indigenous land. Indigenous People will decide their land management and whether to develop it. Not Premier Ford.

Indigenous People and Indigenous land have long suffered exploitation. Ontarians demand transparency from the government of Ontario in all transactions, especially in environmental assessment of water and land for roads and mining. And, fair distribution of wealth among the agreed parties.

Mining has more then a two-fold by-product, it provides jobs and wealth for some, but it also has a history of ravishing land until it is dead and useless. It has been asserted that mining and nature must co-exist in a way that nature will always be the winner of the agreement - politically, socially, spiritually, and environmentally.

Karen Rooney

THUNDER BAY