Editor:
In regards to the Outlook’s article in the March 7 edition “Province ‘lack jurisdiction’ for new environmental assessment on Three Sisters lands’”.
The Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas director of regulatory assurance for the states: “As such, I am of the opinion that I lack jurisdiction to determine whether an environmental assessment of the project is warranted at this time.”
How can the ministry think that a 32-year-old environmental study is valid in any situation?
Thirty-two years ago, Three Sisters Mountain Village lands were tortured lands just starting to recover from decades of mining traffic. Today, those lands have been allowed time for recovery and have begun to heal from decades of use. Native species have returned to a part of the valley they did not have access to during those decades of industrial use.
The Bow Valley environment, like the rest of the world, has changed drastically in five years, let alone 32. If the director of regulatory assurance section for the Ministry of the Environment and Protected Area lacks the jurisdiction to require a new environmental study on a project that is 32 years old, my suspicion has to be this is a political answer to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation’s and Bow Valley Engage’s request for a new environmental impact study – not an environmental one.
Perhaps the director can check with her boss to answer my question: Who does an Albertan with environmental concerns turn to if environmental concerns are not the concerns of the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas?
Dave Clark,
Canmore
