News Release - March 3, 2015

Wilderness Committee calls on company to leave Vancouver Island for good

VICTORIA – Compliance Energy, the proponent of the controversial Raven Coal Mine proposal, has withdrawn its revised application just hours before the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) was set to announce whether or not the application would advance to final environmental review.

Compliance’s original mine application was rejected in May 2013, when the EAO determined it was missing hundreds of pages of required information. The company re-submitted its proposal on January 30th of this year, and it is unclear why it withdrew this second application.

“This latest move just reaffirms our view that the company is unprepared and unreliable,” said Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. “When Compliance re-submitted the proposal a month ago, they said all of the shortcomings in the application had been addressed. It looks like they’ve wasted the government’s time – and the public’s time – yet again.”

This Monday marked the end of the 30-day screening period to determine whether the application was fit to enter final review.

The Raven Coal project proposes to mine almost 30 million tonnes of coal and rock at a site near Fanny Bay in the Comox Valley. The Wilderness Committee has campaigned against the project since 2010, and it is also opposed by local environmental and community organizations, business groups and all four municipal governments in the vicinity of the mine site.

“The Raven Coal Mine proposal has faced a groundswell of opposition right from day one,” Coste explained. “Vancouver Islanders want economic development that doesn’t threaten the environment, and it’s time for the company to realize this and cancel its plans for good.”

The Wilderness Committee will continue to monitor the situation and work with local allies to stop the project should Compliance Energy decide to pursue it further.

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For more information, please contact:

Torrance Coste | Vancouver Island Campaigner, Wilderness Committee
250-516-9900, torrance@wildernesscommittee.org

Additional resources:

Compliance Energy’s letter of withdrawal

Photo: Comox Glacier, near the site of the proposed Raven Coal Mine (K. Kaptein).