The Keltic hearings
Day four, Antigonish
Mussels, minerals, tourists and terrorists
“Our association makes the offer that we will work with the local community and the proponent in any way we can to ensure that both the project and the existing mussel farm co-exist through the life cycle of the project.”
~ Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia (AANS) executive director Brian Muise.
ANTIGONISH – Offers of co-operation mingled with the spectre of terrorist
attacks, during day four of the Keltic hearings.
While the project received strong support from several of the province’s most
influential corners – including a claim that it could be a tourist attraction
– it also came under fire as a potential terrorist threat and for being “so wrong
and so contrary to the direction humanity needs to take.”
Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia (AANS) executive director Brian Muise
and Country Harbour Sea Farms Limited operator Bruce Hancock made the day’s first
presentation. Muise said AANS viewed the project as “a great economic opportunity
for the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.”
However, Muise said, a close examination of Keltic’s Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) report had raised several concerns for both AANS and Hancock, who is also
the group’s treasurer. Country Harbour Sea Farms Limited produces nine per cent
of the province’s total mussel production.
“We have a number of specific concerns related to the proponents’ efforts to
date in several areas of potential, negative environmental impacts of their project
and the subsequent negative impacts which those might have on Country Harbour
Sea Farms’ ability to conduct its business over both the long and short term,”
Muise said.
He highlighted several areas that AANS believes needs more study, including the
Marine Environmental Assessment, the Marine Safety Assessment, oil spill analysis
and the Invasives and Non-native Species Assessment. Muise said the EIA did not
“sufficiently recognize the benefits to the community of current and future sustainable
employment created and maintained by mussel farming in Country Harbour.”
He asked the EAB to recommend that several items be added to Keltic’s Environmental
Management plan. The additions included undertakings to conduct “a thorough,
pre-development, scientific evaluation of the current baseline contaminant levels
in Country Harbour” and “a more thoroughly-characterized evaluation of the risks
of operating vessels and moving potentially harmful materials at this location,
by better describing the physical environment of this site.”
Muise and Hancock both then pledged their support for the project and said strong,
open lines of communication could result in both operations peacefully co-existing.
“Our association makes the offer that we will work with the local community and
the proponent in any way we can to ensure that both the project and the existing
mussel farm co-exist through the life cycle of the project,” Muise said.
Antigonish Eastern Shore Tourist Association (AESTA) board member Ernie Curry
also made a presentation during the morning session, telling the EAB that Keltic’s
LNG and petrochemical plant could serve as a tourist draw.
Curry said that “good corporate partners” – he specifically referenced ExxonMobil’s
presence via the Sable project – had already led to increased community development,
better services, more recreation opportunities and other spin-off benefits in
Guysborough County. But then Curry added that the complex itself could be a tourist
attraction.
That comment led audience member and fellow presenter Delia Burge, a Scotsburn
resident with property in Drum Head, to suggest to the EAB that touring the complex
would be “the last thing” visitors to the Goldboro area would want to do.
“I’ve been involved in the tourism industry for 25 years and I think the last
think tourists would want to do is tour a big industrial complex. They want peace
and quiet,” Burge, a member of a craft co-operative in Pictou County said her
place of business overlooks the pulp mill near Pictou, said. “Not once in my
25 years in the tourism industry have I had a visitor come and say, ‘Yes, we’ve
come here to see a pulp mill.’”
Curry – who said AESTA “strongly supports” the proposed project – said it was
dangerous to take a “narrow” view of who the modern tourist really is.
“This industry would not be sustained by the narrow view of the tourist who comes
in and takes pictures of trees,” he said. “I’m not discounting (that kind of
tourist)...but the industry is much broader than the idea of the tourist with
the camera around their neck.”
Soon after, Burge made her presentation and quickly made it clear that she doesn’t
want to see the project proceed.
“I’m not affiliated with any group, nor am I a so-called ‘tree-hugger’,” she
said. “I am a concerned resident who usually does not speak up for things I truly
believe in, even though there have been many times I have felt I should do so.
“I know there is much criticism of us folks ‘from away’ who are opposing this
project, with some thinking we are all rich because we own a house or cottage
in the country. The fact is, I have four jobs, few days off, no prospects of
company pensions, no RRSPs.”
Later, Burge said the project’s ownership structure "has been sold to foreign
companies and the only Canadian content is Keltic, with Kevin Dunn as the token
Nova Scotian spokesperson.” She went on to say that the proposed project might
be targeted by “terrorists” wishing to hurt US gas supplies. She denied her comments
amounted to “scare tactics.”
Afternoon session
The afternoon session kicked off with a barrage of
criticism aimed at Keltic and delivered by GreyhawkeRidge Minerals president
Wayne Lockerby.
Lockerby fired a volley of verbal shots at Keltic,
which he said had ignored 45 mineral claims his company had in the Isaac’s
Harbour area.
Lockerby said GreyhawkeRidge and other companies
that had previously owned the claims had invested more than $874,000 in
maintaining them. He also said there had been exploration proving that
there were about 50,000 ounces of gold under the ground where Keltic proposes
to build its facility.
Lockerby added that part of Keltic’s EIA stated that
the proposed project, which specifically stated that no mining activity
in the area would be possible once construction began, would render the
claims “valueless.”
He said provincial regulations included provisions
that any stakeholders affected by new development could not be negatively
affected by such development.
Lockerby added that Keltic had not responded to several
letters he had sent seeking meetings about how the company’s proposed
project would affect his operation.
“I ask that…your recommendation to the minister include,
as a condition of approval, that Keltic shall fairly and fully compensate
[those who held mineral licenses in the area] when [the company] announced
it was going public,” Lockerby said.
The next intervenor was the Department of Transportation
and Public Works (DOT).
A representative from that department said the province
supported the proposed highway presented by Keltic in its EIA report.
That route involves rerouting about four kilometers
of road near the facility but then joins Highway 316 to Goshen. It then
follows Highway 276 for a few kilometers before joining Highway 7 into
Antigonish.
The spokesman said several upgrades – all to be paid
for by Keltic – would be required to bring highways 276 and 316 up to
a 50,000 kilogram all-weather load-bearing weight. The roads would also
need to be widened to 20 metres, the spokesman said.
When questioned on Keltic’s original proposal, to
build a $50 million highway, the spokesman said he “wasn’t aware” of the
proposal and that he had only examined the proposed route included in
the EIA.
The spokesman also said he hadn’t seen an alternative
route proposed by the Antigonish-Guysborough Road Committee. The spokesman
said the route included in Keltic’s EIA was “an acceptable route” and
“a feasible option with upgrades.”
The afternoon’s third intervenor was the Construction
Association of Nova Scotia, which threw its support behind the project.
Spokesman Ernie Porter said the project could “directly
account for near a quarter of the construction activity in the province
for the next three to four years.
“The spin-off activity will also be significant,”
Porter said. “We are all aware of the present trend of workers from Atlantic
Canada moving to central and western Canada. We need to reverse that trend.”
The afternoon’s final presenter was area resident
Kathi Ryan, who said the project is “so wrong and so contrary to the direction
humanity needs to take.”
INTERVENORS:
•Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia, Brian Muise
•Antigonish Eastern Shore Tourist Association,
Ernest Curry
•Delia Burge
•GreyhawkeRidge Minerals Inc,
Wayne Lockerby
•Department of Transportation and Public Works
•Construction Association of Nova Scotia
•Kathi Ryan
