This article discusses the Tsilhqot’in people’s efforts in eliminating Taseko’s mining project. Taseko’s site is just outside the 1750 square-kilometers that the Tsilhqot’in people are titled to, yet the Tsilhqot’in people are trying to transform the site into a tribal park boundary. This would forbid the company from any mining or logging and permit only small-scale projects that would benefit native employment.
The Tsilhqot’in have just been titled to a huge area of land and therefore they should not be entitled to this land just because they disagree. The fact that the tribe has gone forward in claiming this land before any government approval is unjust and unfair to Taseko’s $1.1 billion project. The First Nations’ method in preventing the project may be exploiting their rights, however, they may have good reason to. Taseko’s project’s first plan was so harmful to the environment that it was refuted. Their second plan still showed the project would be substantially damaging to the surrounding wildlife.
Though I believe that the Tsilhqot’in wrongly claimed the land as a tribal park, I believe that they did so for good reason. They may have acted irrationally in fear of being ignored, as it happened often in history. The government should highly consider the environmental impact and economic benefit of the project before approving it and upsetting the First Nation’s community.