East Kootenay Residents Land Use Coalition

The parks are in danger?  What is the threat?  Is it mining, oil and gas?  Tel us why you are doing this, tell us who funds your group for $1 million per year (your friends in the USA).

You say you don't want a park, but what do you want?  You say that mining and oil and gas has priority, but why has the Lodgepole project been sidelined for more than four years and BP has withdrawn their request for permits to the Flathead?

Why do we let the Americans tell us what do do in our country?  If Glacier Park is in danger it will be from overuse by people.  The mines in this area have shown for more than 100 years that we can have a balance between development and protection.   Don't degrade us by saying we endanger watersheds.

Bill Bennett tells us that the people of the East Kootenay don't want mining in the Flathead.  No one ever asked me my throughts;  Bill just shrugs this off and says that he knows what I think!  But how many of you got asked?  Was there a vote that I didn't hear about or is he just hearing the same old stories by the same people?

Everyone I talk to agrees that there should be a system that is fair and that considers all factors on a subject.

Does anyone else know that there are three potential coal mines in the Flathead valley?  That the Lodgepole project would employ 320 people and contribute more than $100 million in BC mineral taxes?  That there is a gold project that has had many millions of dollars spent in exploration, that there are several phosphate projects down there.  There is also potential for oil and gas, just look at the oil derrick at the tourist information centre, it came from the Flathead.

The Flathead valley will not be the last valley that Wildsight will make special and off limits to all users.

Do we want mining in our area?  If we do, we have to stand up for our rights, tell our political representatives that we will not be forced to do what one group wants us to.  We have a right to continue to work and live the way we have for more than a century.

Let our representatives know what we believe, tell them that mining can work if done properly and that we don't want any more parks or protected areas in the East Kootenays.

R.J. Morris, M.Sc., P.Geo.
Fernie