http://www.edmontonjournal.com/index.html
VANCOUVER – A coalition of First Nations and conservation groups is suing the Yukon government over its decision to open a vast region of the Canadian North to mining and industrial development.
The group says the decision ignores a land-use plan seven years in the making. A lawsuit was filed Monday in Yukon Supreme Court by the Nacho Nyak Dun, the Tr’ondek Hwech’in, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Yukon and the Yukon Conservation Society.
They say the plan released a week ago in Whitehorse violates the land-use planning provisions of a land claims agreement the territory signed with First Nations.
“It’s a lawsuit that nobody wanted to bring,” said their lawyer Thomas Berger, who headed the landmark Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Commission in the territory almost 37 years ago.
“But the government of Yukon has forced these plaintiffs … to go to court not only in defence of First Nations rights and environmental values in Yukon, but also to uphold principles entrenched in the Constitution.”
Berger said the development plan announced last Monday discards years of work by the planning commission and ignores the views of First Nations and the affected communities.
“No matter how it is viewed, it is a complete rewrite …,” he said at a news conference in Vancouver to announce the legal action.
Under the commission’s land use plan released in 2011, 55 per cent of the watershed in northeastern Yukon would have been protected.
Instead, the government plan protects 29 per cent of the area, though existing mineral claims within that zone can still be developed. Another 44 per cent of the watershed is open to restricted use and 27 per cent open to most land use activities and development.
“This remote area holds resources that have the potential to be of great value to Yukon’s economy, both now and in the future,” Yukon Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources Scott Kent said in a statement when the plan was released.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/First+Nations+conservationists+file+lawsuit+over/9436043/story.html