Haines needs to take control of its future
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TweetLast week’s story about Liz Cornejo becoming an employee of the Japanese company Dowa was illuminating, but not because of what was in the story. Totally absent from Cornejo was any recognition of the many long-standing concerns from Haines residents about the proposed Constantine mine project. All she talked about was how good this would be for Dowa.
Neither Constantine nor Dowa has responded to numerous requests for information from Haines residents, conservation groups and the Chilkat Indian Village. Company officials have ignored requests to meet.
Dowa and Constantine are treating Haines like one of those old mining company towns. They are looking to loot the region’s minerals, and then take the money and run. They have shown no concern for the Chilkat River, its fish, and those who depend on this resource for food and livelihoods.
Dowa owns part of the Gibraltar mine, which pollutes the Fraser River, a premier sockeye river, with six million gallons of untreated wastewater a day.
Is this the kind of company Haines wants to tie its future to?
And who is running the show here? It seems that Yukon mining companies, a junior B.C. mining company and a massive Japanese industrial corporation are trying to determine the future of Haines. And they have only one concern…profit.
Haines needs to take control of its economic future and not let it be determined by foreign mining companies.
Chris Zimmer
