Controversial proposed sand mining project blocked by Manitoba government

February 16, 2024 Canuck

The Manitoba government announced a proposed silica sand mine will not be allowed to go forward, with the premier saying the environmental concerns outweigh ‘uncertain’ economic benefits.

The province said in a news release it decided not to issue an environmental license for the Vivian sand extraction project proposed in the Rural Municipality of Springfield by Alberta-based Sio Silica.

“After taking the time and doing our due diligence, our government has come to the decision that the risks of this proposal outweigh any potential benefits,” Premier Wab Kinew said in the news release.

The province’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Tracy Schmidt said the decision was made based on information provided by experts, including a report done by the Clean Environment Commission, as well as consultations with impacted communities and First Nations.

The CEC report identified several serious environmental concerns about the project, which would have extracted sand through aquifers that provide drinking water to 100,000 Manitobans.

“We have a responsibility to ensure we are not endangering Manitobans’ drinking water,” Schmidt said in the news release. “This proposal failed to adequately consider long-term impacts including potential aquifer collapse. That’s why we made the decision to not issue a license for the Vivian sand extraction project.”

The CEC also heard from hundreds of Manitobans voicing their opposition to the project, local leaders, scientists and environmental advocacy groups, the minister said.

Project plagued with controversy, pushback

The move is the latest in a saga of pushback and controversy surrounding the proposed project.

In September, area councillors Mark Miller and Andy Kuczynski say they received a letter from a lawyer representing Sio Silica, saying the company was considering “action for misfeasance in public office” over the two councillors’ continued attempts to “delay and disrupt” the project.

“I think that’s nothing less than bullying and intimidating us,” Miller told CTV News at the time.

Dozens of residents showed up for a rally outside the Springfield municipal office opposing the project, and thousands of people phoned into a private residents’ referendum held in the RM. They were asked if they supported the silica sand extraction project.

According to the group organizing the referendum – a group that has been fiercely opposed to the project – more than 96 per cent of people who phoned in voted against it.

Meantime, two former Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers – Kevin Klein and Rochelle Squires – said their own government tried to push through the project just days before the new NDP government was officially sworn in.

In the aftermath of the provincial election, Klein says he got a phone call on Oct. 12 from his colleague Jeff Wharton – then minister of economic development, investment and trade.

Klein, who was the minister of environment and climate at the time, said Wharton asked him to sign a directive that would allow a license to be approved for Sio Silica.

Squires said Wharton reached out to her as well, asking the same thing.

“Obviously, it was not an appropriate request and the approvals were not given,” Squires told CTV News.

Wharton has denied the accusation, and has said he was simply gathering information about the mining project to pass on to the incoming government.

In the aftermath, the governing NDP asked the provincial ethics commissioner to investigate the PCs over the move.

-With files from CTV’s Danton Unger

View original article here Source