Newsletter 02: Winter 1999-2000

On January 11th, MiningWatch Canada presented a plan for dealing with Canada's abandoned mines crisis to the eight members of cabinet most responsible for finding solutions to this issue. The plan calls for:

When foreign investment is encouraged in the absence of adequate controls, the results can be very disturbing. This was one of the themes coming out of the "Mining, development, and social conflicts in Africa" conference held by the Third World Network (TWN) in Accra, Ghana on November 14-18, 1999. Participants got to see first hand the impacts of gold mining and exploration on poor farming communities in the Western Region of Ghana.

MiningWatch Canada has initiated a small regional grants program. The goal of the program is to strengthen the capacity of people in communities affected by mining activities to assert their needs and rights. We will fund travel and exchange between community leaders and education and advocacy activities. Maximum grants are $1500. Grant applications are due January 31 and September 30 annually.

This month, after years of public consultations and negotiations, the Tr'ondek Hwech'in, with the support of environmental groups like CPAWS-Yukon, succeeded in getting 216,000 acres in the Yukon set aside as a park. Tombstone Territorial Park is an area of extraordinary beauty, that contains may sacred sites and places of archaeological significance.