Proposed Peat Mine Draws Opposition
Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba Conservation has expressed concern that a proposed peat mine at Hecla/Grindstone Provincial Park could pose a fire risk for cottagers, damage the park’s only road and harm habitat for Manitoba’s dwindling moose population.
The concerns were raised in an email this summer by a Conservation department staffer to a consulting company preparing an environmental licence application on behalf of peat producer Sun Gro Horticulture.
Meanwhile, a senior Manitoba cabinet minister said Tuesday that Sun Gro’s proposed 531-hectare development inside the park adjacent to Lake Winnipeg "is not a slam-dunk."
"We have a (application review) process in place that will be rigorous," Finance Minister Stan Struthers said, filling in for Conservation Minister Dave Chomiak, who was unavailable.
The revelation that a company is seeking to mine peat in the park has incensed environmental activists as well as cottage and homeowners in the park. On Tuesday, at a joint press conference at the Legislative Building, the provincial Liberals, the Green party and two environmentalists condemned the proposed project.
The province has not spoken publicly or released documents outlining its concerns about the proposed Hecla/Grindstone peat mine. The email, written by Conservation department staffer Jessica Elliott to KGS Group, acting for Sun Gro, was contained as an appendix in the company’s final draft of its environment licence application in October. The email was sent to KGS on Aug. 2, 2011.
In it, the Conservation department raised safety concerns, including the risk of fire that could threaten a cottagers. "Increased fire risk has been associated with this type of operation," Elliott wrote. "The proposed peat mine development is directly up the prevailing winds from the cottaging area. As such there is a much greater potential that a fire in the peat mine development could spread to the cottaging area threatening life and property."
The email notes that there are "hundreds of cottages" in a subdivision north of the proposed mine and only one road leading out of the development to the south. "This road runs past the peat mine development."
The department also expressed concern that draining the mine site would degrade nearby wetlands. And it worried that development of the area would improve access to moose hunters.
Sun Gro, whose U.S. parent company is the largest peat producer in North America, has a couple of obstacles to clear before the project becomes reality. The environmental licence is one. The other is that its lease at the Hay Point site at the park runs out in early May. It will need to apply to another provincial government department — Innovation, Energy and Mines — to renew that lease. Chomiak holds both portfolios.
"It is a big mistake to be mining peat in provincial parks," said Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard said at Tuesday’s press conference. "There are many, many other places in Manitoba where peat can be harvested."
Green party Leader James Beddome compared the province’s consideration of a mine in a park to allowing bullying in part of a playground at a school that bans bullying. "You wouldn’t call that label of a ‘bully-free school’ accurate, would you?" he remarked.
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s Manitoba office has posted Sun Gro’s peat mine licence application on its website. It is also collecting comments from citizens that it will forward to the province. The public comment period on Sun Gro’s environmental licence application ends Feb. 3.
