HAPPY EARTH DAY! Mining will strip away the remaining row of trees to completely expose Glenda's house, effectively transforming her yard into a big open pit mine, it's bad enough as it is right now. All vegetation on the right will also be stripped up to the edge of Mary Mcleod Road.
I am deeply disappointed with the Yukon Party and Minister Rouble’s three hour filibuster in the legislature last week in reply to MLA Steve Cardiff’s motion to overhaul Yukon’ s mining regulations. This political gamesmanship belongs in the kindergarten sandbox and nowhere else. It doesn’t belong in the realm of grown-ups charged with the responsibility of governing our Yukon Territory.
Minister Rouble’s fear arises from Mr. Cardiff’s and Yukon NDP’s concern over unbridled mining claims overlapping municipal boundaries with the potential to disrupt municipal jurisdiction and quality of life for residents.
Most notably, Dome residents in Dawson are today threatened with serious disruption of their right to quite enjoyment of their property because of an old mining claim that has been grandfathered and protected due to antiquated mining regulations.
This out-of-date legislation is what I believe most Yukoners would like to have reviewed to reflect today’s reality and not the status quo of one hundred years ago which apparently Minister Rouble and the government would like to defend, most likely motivated by a loyalty to their personal friends in the industry.
Interestingly enough, many prominent placer miners in the Klondike area are none too happy with the situation in the Dome residential area. They know that because of the actions of this one rogue miner a bad light will be cast on the entire industry. No one wants that.
The Yukon Environmental Assessment process recommended against allowing the Slinky Mines operation to proceed, yet the Territorial Review Committee overruled those recommendations clear-cutting the way for this conflict.
Why is the Territorial government allowing the affected residents to twist in the wind while downloading all responsibility on to a municipality that doesn’t have the tools required to mitigate this problem?
To Dawson Council’s credit they along with the CAO have been very engaged in trying to deal with this. But where is YTG? Minister Lang was in town last week and did visit the site and met with some of the property owners and certainly expressed concern, but what will he do about it?
Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of the residents the tide seems to be shifting in favour of the rational view and with any luck a resolution will be arrived at before every last tree is bulldozed down.
