Decision on peat mine delayed
Winnipeg Free Press
The provincial government has delayed a decision until fall on whether to allow Sun Gro Horticulture to develop a peat mine in Hecla/Grindstone Provincial Park.
In January, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh promised a swift decision on the project's fate following an outcry from park cottagers, environmentalists and Liberal and Green party politicians.
"I'm well aware of the concerns and I'm going to have a very hard look at this application as a priority issue over the coming month, at the outside," Mackintosh said shortly after inheriting the Conservation portfolio in a Jan. 13 cabinet shuffle.
But in a recent interview, he said he will put off an announcement until the province hears appeals on two other peat-mine proposals in the same region. Aboriginal leaders have objected to government decisions to allow peat mining by Berger Peat Moss Ltd. at Deer Lake Bog and by Sun Gro at Ramsay Point, claiming they were not properly consulted about mining activity on their traditional lands. Both proposed projects are on Crown land within about a half hour's drive from Riverton.
"I felt compelled not to deal with the application for the park alone, but to join that with the consideration of two appeals that were outstanding for peat applications that were in the general area," Mackintosh said.
Sun Gro Horticulture has applied for an environmental licence for a 531-hectare peat mine at Hay Point within Hecla/Grindstone park. The public had until Feb. 3 to make its views known to the province.
Mackintosh said more than 1,500 Manitobans expressed their views by brief, letter or by signing petitions. He called the response "one of the biggest... in recent times" for such an application.
Apart from a few supporters including the Town of Riverton, the public reaction to a peat mine inside Hecla/Grindstone park "was resoundingly negative," the minister said.
