Yesterday, the Tsilhqot’in tribe emerged a totem pole near Fish Lake as a marker of the new Dasiqox Tribal Park. This was the result of a historic Supreme Court Decision from a few months back that granted the Tislhqot’in people 1,750 square kilometres of disputed land. This news, despite being very significant for the Tislhqot’in tribe, would not be as widely publicized if it were not for the fact that the new Dasiqox Park is covering the area where the Taseko’s $1.1 billion New Prosperity copper-gold project would be founded.
The tribal park is created in order to protect several species of fauna an flora that are endangered and cannot be found in this quantity anywhere else in the world. However, tribal parks are not officially recognized by the provincial government of British Columbia. This makes it harder for the Tislhqot’in people to ensure that the park’s boundaries and their rules of what can and cannot be done are going to be respected. This fact means that Taseko’s plans for building the mine at Fish Lake are not completely ruined.
Nonetheless, Taseko still has to have their plans approved by the federal government before anything can be done, since their plans have been continuously criticized because it contaminates the environment around it. It would have been a better choice for Taseko to implement a PEST analysis before anything else, so they could evaluate the political and social factors that are affecting the mining company’s projects.
It is very clear that before anything is done, there will be the need for a meeting between the government, the Tislhqot’in people, and the extracting company in order to clarify what will and what will not be allowed inside the tribal park.