Red Chris Can Go Ahead, But Method Of Permitting Slammed

By 250 News

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the permits  for  the  Imperial Metals Corporation's Red Chris Mine  project  are valid, but  limited the right of Responsible Federal Authorities to make project review scoping decisions under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

The Court declined to set aside the Federal Government's environmental assessment of the Red Chris Project . The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court was delivered by Mr. Justice Rothstein who stated, "...I can see no justification in requiring Red Chris to repeat the environmental assessment process when there was no challenge to the substantive decisions made by the RAs (Responsible Authorities)."

In order to develop a copper and gold open pit mining and milling operation in B.C., a mining company submitted a project description to the BC Environmental Assessment Office.  Public comment was sought and the Office subsequently determined that the project was not likely to cause significant adverse, environmental, heritage, social, economic or health effects and issued a provincial environmental assessment certificate.  The company also submitted to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans applications for dams required to create a tailings impoundment area. 

Initially, the Department stated that a comprehensive study was required because the project fell within the provisions of the Comprehensive Study List Regulations (“CSL”) promulgated under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (“CEAA”).  It subsequently scoped the project as to exclude the mine and mill and, given this, concluded that a comprehensive study was no longer necessary and that the assessment would proceed by way of screening.  Additional public comment was not sought and the screening instead relied on information collected through the cooperative federal/provincial environmental assessment process. 

The federal screening report concluded that the project was not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects and the responsible authority made the decision to allow the project to proceed. 

MiningWatch filed an application for judicial review of the decision to conduct a screening rather than a comprehensive study. 

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