WINNIPEG –The Wilderness Committee has filed freedom of information (FIPPA) requests with the Manitoba Sustainable Development department after Minister of Sustainable Development Rochelle Squires refused to release information regarding new mining developments in Nopiming Provincial Park. Portions of the park have been quietly bulldozed and logged for mineral exploration in the last few months.

“Most jurisdictions in Canada, or other countries in the world, would not allow mining companies to come into a provincial park and do exploration which is extremely damaging,” said Wilderness Committee Wilderness and Water Campaigner Eric Reder. “Ecosystems and biodiversity are not being protected in Nopiming, as The Provincial Parks Act requires and the public expects.” 

 

The area of the park where new mineral exploration has occurred is protected for the recovery of moose populations. It is also likely future boreal woodland caribou habitat, a species protected under federal and provincial legislation. The Wilderness Committee is asking for copies of the work permits issued for mining activity in Nopiming Provincial Park, as well as the ecological assessments which should have been done before issuing permits.

 

“What’s maddening is when we seek to understand how much damage the mining industry is doing to our parks, the ministry in charge of the parks refuses to answer our simple request for information which should be public in the first place,” said Reder. “Now we are forced to use the FIPPA laws which can be very expensive and time-consuming.”

 

For two years the Wilderness Committee has been pressing this Manitoba government to finalize the overdue management plan for Nopiming Provincial Park, which is required under The Provincial Parks Act and was due in 2016. The last Nopiming plan was published in 1988. During consultations on a new plan, there were calls for a ban on mining activity in provincial parks. There has been no response from the government on the overdue management plan. 

 

“From climate to caribou and now parks, we are seeing the Manitoba government ignore their responsibility to protect our environment. And now we are being prevented from even getting basic information from the ministry in charge of our parks. It is a shameful state of affairs,” said Reder. 

 

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Eric Reder | Wilderness and Water Campaigner, Wilderness Committee

204-997-8584, eric@wildernesscommittee.org