Get into gear to Stop the Raven Coal Mine

Located in the Comox Valley on the east side of Vancouver Island, the proposed Raven Coal mine would extract 44 million tonnes of coal over a 20-year period.  Once this coal is burned it will add over 80 million tonnes of climate change causing greenhouse gases into the air.

Over the last several months, we’ve been traveling Vancouver Island talking to people about the potential impacts of a mine, and listening to their concerns. This mine proposal threatens sensitive salmon habitat, the world famous Fanny Bay shellfish industry, and local air and water quality. Dirty coal has no place in a climate friendly future, and clean air and clean water are more important than a dirty coal mine.

We’re standing up with the people of these communities and saying “No to Raven Coal,” and we want you to join us as we take this fight to the Environmental Assessment process.

The Environmental Assessment process is how the government determines whether or not a project is environmentally acceptable. This process is flawed at the best of times, and the Raven Coal project is far from the best. The recent hack job to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act has left many of us (including people who work for the agency) confused about what the process is. Early this week, the public comment period for Raven Coal opened, but there was nothing to comment on - no documents, no report, nothing.

This is a far cry from what usually happens. It seems the new act has caught the  Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by surprise and they have started the process without any of the background documents the public needs in order to participate effectively.

The standard procedure for Environmental Assessments (both federal and provincial) is often criticized as basically being red tape but little more: it rarely turns down projects and often fails to stop bad projects in their tracks. But it can be a powerful tool to get together and raise our collective voices as citizens to say no.

We have harnessed this tool in the past to stop bad projects in their tracks. During the public comment period for the Upper Pitt Power Project we filled buses, jammed rooms and flooded inboxes with people voicing their concerns. The government and the company heard us loud and clear, and we won the fight to save the Upper Pitt in the assessment process.

Since then we have stopped and slowed projects from the Kootenays to mid-coast and back again. At the Ryan River, at Glacier-Howser, we’ve stood up and stalled bad projects. And over 3,000 people wrote, signed petitions and attended meetings about the Bute Inlet power project, and that project has pulled out of the environmental assessment process.

This process can make a difference. And with your help it will work with Raven Coal. If you stand with us, we will stop this nasty project before it ever starts.

Thank you for your help,

Tria Donaldson | Pacific Coast Campaigner
Wilderness Committee