Road work pausing, mining firm says

Construction on a temporary 18-kilometre access road from the end of the Wenasaga Road to its Springpole Gold Project exploration site has been halted after Cat Lake First Nation filed for an injunction to stop the progress until the community could weigh in on the development. Cat Lake First Nation Chief Russell Wesley claims that despite a well-documented moratorium and numerous public statements of opposition to mining in the Cat Lake Territory, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry had issued permits to First Mining Gold for the construction of access road. “They are already seven kilometres into building this road,” Wesley said. “I filed a court injunction on Feb. 21 and I’m going through that process of arranging for the hearings because there’s lots of problems associated with this,” Wesley said. “A lot of it has to do with trying to arrange proper consultation for the project.” Wesley told The Chronicle-Journal that First Nation communities don’t have capacity development officers, which causes the chiefs to become “inundated with emails from government mining claims.” “It gets overwhelming when you don’t have that capacity and when you’re dealing with the social crisis in the community,” he said. “We have a health crisis with the lack of proper medical services and the opioid crisis that’s tied into that and that takes up pretty much 100 per cent of our time just reacting to those things.” He added that they have no time to deal with somebody else’s deadlines. Since July 2020, Wesley claims there has been pressure on his community from First Mining Gold to pursue deadlines and benchmarks in their project. “The constant barrage of emails, deadlines and requests to meet with First Mining Gold got so overwhelming and we weren’t able to properly consult with our community,” Wesley said. Wesley said his community decided to put a moratorium on it until they can consult with their people about the project, adding that First Mining Gold agreed to it by funding the addition of an Anishinaabe Lead Impact Assessment (ALIA). “Cat Lake has always maintained that it’s open to considering the development of a mining project in its traditional territory,” Wesley said. First Mining Gold Corp did not respond to calls and emails from The Chronicle-Journal but issued a general advisory stating, “First Mining requested the authorization early in 2023 after reviewing exploration camp re-supply options that would significantly reduce the risks to employees, contractors and the environment.” The advisory included that lawyers for First Mining, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Cat Lake First Nation met on Feb. 23 for a scheduling hearing at which time the judge issued an interim order staying the authorization of the Natural Resources Ministry, pausing the temporary winter road construction activities. “While it is disappointing that (Cat Lake First Nation) has chosen to oppose these important, temporary safety activities, First Mining continues to listen to the concerns of Indigenous communities and is always willing to meet with community leaders to discuss these and any other matters regarding our activities in their traditional territories,” Dan Wilton, First Mining Gold chief executive officer, was quoted in the advisory. Meanwhile, the Anishinaabe Lead Impact Assessment is expected to be completed in March of 2025, at which time the community will decide on the project’s progress. Wesley noted that Cat Lake First Nation doesn’t have a treaty and was an aboriginal title area that impacts the statement of claim that was filed in July of 2023.

Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal