Participant Funding Program
Review Committee's Report - Regular Funding Envelope

Allocation of Funds for Participation of the Review Panel for the Prosperity Gold/Copper Mine Project

The Participant Funding Program (PFP) is established pursuant to subsection 58(1.1) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (the Act), which states: For the purposes of this Act, the Minister shall establish a participant funding program to facilitate the participation of the public in comprehensive studies, mediations and assessments by review panels.

A Funding Review Committee (FRC), independent from the Prosperity Gold/Copper Mine Review Panel, was established to review funding applications and allocate up to $200,000 to facilitate public participation in the EA process for the Prosperity Gold/Copper Mine Project (the Project). On December 18, 2008, the FRC met to review four applications received by the PFP requesting a total of $110,250. The FRC members were: Mr. Paul Scott, retired Regional Director of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's (the Agency) Vancouver office, as Committee Chairperson, Mr. Ray Crook, Environmental Assessment Consultant, and Dr. George Kupfer, Environmental and Socio-Economic Consultant.

Background

The proposed gold and copper mine project would be constructed roughly 125 kilometers (km) southwest of Williams Lake, British Columbia. Development of the mine site will occur on a 35-square-km parcel of Provincial Crown land currently held in the form of 118 mineral claims by Taseko Mines Ltd. The Project would include a large open pit mine development with a 20-year operating life, to be developed on the site of an existing natural lake (Fish Lake). Typical large-scale open pit mining equipment and conventional copper porphyry flotation processing would be used. In addition to the mine and associated tailings and waste rock areas, the Project would include the development of an onsite mill and support infrastructure, explosives factory and magazine, a 2.8 km mine access road to connect to existing logging roads and highways and transportation of concentrate to the railhead at the existing Gibraltar Mine Concentrate Loadout Facility near Macalister, 54 km north of Williams Lake.

On November 4, 2008, the Agency announced the availability of up to $200,000 to facilitate public participation in this EA. The public had until December 8, 2008 to submit funding applications. The funding to be awarded is being made available to help successful applicants prepare for and participate in the EA of the Project to be conducted by an independent federal review panel, set up under the Act. 

Eligibility

Individuals, Aboriginal groups and incorporated not-for-profit organizations who could demonstrate that they had met at least one of the following criteria were eligible for participant funding under the program:

• have a direct, local interest in the Project, such as living in or owning property in the project area;
• have community knowledge or Aboriginal traditional knowledge relevant to the EA; or
• have expert information relevant to the anticipated environmental effects of the Project.

Parties that are for-profit; have a direct commercial interest in the Project; or represent a level of government other than an Aboriginal government, were ineligible for participant funding.

All of the applicants were found to be eligible for funding.

Rationale for Allocation

The FRC found some applications well prepared and others lacking details on what activities would be undertaken and how the funds would be spent. Naming technical advisors and providing their CVs, charge-out rates and work plans is important in assisting the FRC to adjudicate applications. This information was not readily available for three of the four applications received.

The FRC supported funding of activities which were within the scope of the EA and that would add value to the review panel process.

The FRC noted that some of the applications were to support activities that were not directly part of the review panel's environmental mandate as outlined in its Terms of Reference. However, the FRC concluded that these activities would be addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement to be completed by the proponent and reviewed by the review panel and, therefore, concluded that the proposed activities would be capable of being considered by the review panel.

The FRC recommended the allocation of funding amounts that it deemed reasonable in light of the information provided in the applications, the substantial costs of undertaking technical reviews and analysis and the limited funding available.

Recommendation

The FRC recommends an allocation of funds totalling $82,250 to the four applicants to participate in the EA process for this Project.

The Participant Funding Review Committee
Regular Funding Envelope

Prosperity Gold/Copper Mine Project

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Mr. Ray Crook, Environmental Assessment Consultant

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George Kupfer, Ph.D., Environmental and Socio-Economic Consultant

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Mr. Paul Scott, Committee Chairperson
Retired Regional Director of the Agency's Vancouver office

Dated: January 14, 2009

Recommended Participant Funding Allocations
Regular Funding Envelope

Prosperity Gold/Copper Mine Project

Applicant	Total amount approved
Share Cariboo-Chilcotin Resources Society	$5,050
Friends of the Nemaiah Valley	$ 25,000
Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce	$ 15,000
Mining Watch Canada	$ 37,200