Wulustukyik Grandmothers setting up permanent camp at Sisson Mine site

Members of the Wulustukyik Nation Grandmothers and Mothers group have built a camp at the proposed site of the Sisson Mine tailings pond, saying they are exercising their right to be on the land.

Terry Sappier is one of eight people currently staying at the site. She said there are members from several Maliseet communities living at the camp.

“We’ve been coming out here and camping for the last three years, looking for a more permanent campsite so that we can use this land and keep it protected from development,” Sappier said.

Sappier said they tried to meet with the former and current provincial government on several occasions in the past regarding the proposed mine and the environmental impact assessment and said they “refused to listen.”  She said that ultimately lead herself and others to come and camp on the land.

READ MORE: New Brunswick, 6 Maliseet First Nations reach Sisson Mine deal

She said the plan is to build more permanent structures, such as houses on the land in all areas of the proposed mine.

Sappier said she wants to make sure it’s clear that occupying the land is not a “protest,” simply people “exercising their rights to live free.”

She said they want to be left alone and aren’t asking for anything, except their land.

She said there have been earthquakes in the area in the past several years and said that raises concern over what would happen if an earthquake breaks the tailings pond.  She said there is also concern over the river and wildlife in the area.

Sappier tells Global News they’ll deal with stakeholders when it happens and said they know they are going to make it very hard for the company to find investors and are creating a challenge for the provincial government.

“We’re just Aboriginal, Indigenous people out on the land enjoying summer and putting in root, getting to know our relations again and living in that balance and harmony with life,” Sappier said.  “That’s all we want.”

She said they’re also putting up longhouses in a couple weeks.

There will be a Peace and Friendship Alliance meeting in September and the Grand Council will have a meeting near the site as well.

When asked about the accommodation agreement between six Maliseet chiefs, she said it doesn’t change things.

READ MORE: Federal government approves proposed New Brunswick tungsten mine set to create 500 jobs

“All that says is that if the project goes through the Maliseet people will be accommodated in this fashion.  The chiefs, when they signed that agreement, they didn’t give consent or approval for the project. It was a hypothetical question that said, ‘If it ever happens this is what you’re getting out of it'”

She said they did get $3 million because of the federal government’s approval of the environmental assessment.

Of the money given to those six First Nations communities, she said the Grandmothers have written a letter to the Chiefs asking for $50,000 from each community to build permanent winter homes on the mine site.

READ MORE: B.C. brings in new oversight rules for mining

She said there is a well driller coming next week to the site.  Sappier also told Global News there are a number of people coming from the Mount Polley area in the coming weeks and said she won’t let a similar disaster happen in New Brunswick.

READ MORE: Mount Polley Mine allowed to reopen almost two years after environmental disaster

Provincial government response

In an email statement from the Department of Energy and Resource Development, spokesperson Shawn Berry said the accommodation agreement reached in February between the province and six Maliseet First Nations was an agreement to share economic opportunities from the new development.

“Government worked in good faith with the six Maliseet First Nations and was able to come to an agreement fulfilling the duty to accommodate,” Berry said. “The agreement shares with Maliseet First Nations a projected 9.8 per cent of provincial royalty revenue that will be generated by the Sisson Mine project under the Metallic Minerals Tax Act.”

He said that in addition to revenue-sharing, the agreement also included land accommodation, mitigation measures, and initiatives for training and employment.

Berry said that would help to “ensure Maliseet First Nation people are beneficiaries of the significant employment opportunity Sisson Mine offers.”

“The Sisson Partnership will invest an estimated $579 million in the mine development which will create 500 jobs during the construction phase and another 300 jobs over the projected 27-year life of the mine. It is estimated that the project will result in $280 million in mineral royalties to New Brunswick, as well as $245 million in tax revenue over the life of the project,” Berry said.

He said the diversification of resource development is important to the province.

“We are proud to have done what was necessary to move the Sisson Brook Mine project forward and we’ll continue to support safe and responsible natural resource development to ensure a strong economic future for our province and its people,” Berry said.

“Government did not just fulfill the duty to accommodate but went further to strike a Lands and Resources Planning Table agreement.  This table has been established to look at cumulative impacts of development to see if they are limiting the ability of the Maliseet to exercise their treaty harvesting rights and to work collaboratively to develop measures to better protect those rights. Government continues to build their relationship with First Nations which is demonstrated in this innovative approach within this agreement.”

Company Response

In an email statement from The Sisson Partnership Community Relations Manager Greg Davidson, he said the project has undergone a thorough environmental assessment process to ensure the mine and all its components will be “constructed, operated and reclaimed in an environmentally sound and socially responsible way. ”

“The Sisson Partnership has engaged with First Nations and stakeholders throughout the environmental assessment process and will continue to do so as it moves into the next stage of the project,” Davidson said.