YELLOWKNIFE — The federal government is considering whether to restore full protection to a vast tract of Arctic wilderness that it quietly opened to mineral exploration last year.
But not every area may be covered — a move environmentalists say throws doubt on the future of more than a dozen northern protected locations.
“It’s really regarded as a betrayal by the partners in the protected areas strategy,” said Rob Powell of the World Wildlife Fund, which has been extensively involved in creating a network of safe areas in the Northwest Territories in advance of industrial development.
The region in question is the Horn Plateau, a vast stretch of boreal forest, uplands and wetlands northwest of Great Slave Lake. It is home to endangered species such as woodland caribou and wolverines, provides important migratory bird habitat and contains the headwaters of three rivers. It is also culturally significant to area aboriginals.
Talks to protect the plateau began in 1992. It has been a candidate for designation as a national wildlife area for more than a decade.
But late last year the federal government chose not to renew interim bans on mineral staking, despite the fact the area had enjoyed such protection since 2002.
That move brought strong protests from environmentalists and aboriginals. The Dehcho First Nation is challenging the decision in Federal Court.
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent now says Ottawa may restore the ban on mineral staking.
“It is something that is being discussed interdepartmentally and with the territorial government and with the First Nations and the NGOs,” he said in Yellowknife on Tuesday.
But any new rule blocking prospectors from parts of the Horn Plateau could come with the price of opening up other sections of it to energy and mining companies, he added.
“I’ve seen several boundary proposals which involve give and take to ensure that the essential areas are properly protected, but that some areas which may have high oil and gas potential or mineral potential can be responsibly carved out.”
The plateau is thought to have significant potential for diamonds, base metals, uranium and energy.
“We don’t compromise the fundamental principles that we’re looking to protect,” Kent said. “That give and take does seems to have worked in the past.”
But there’s already been plenty of that, Powell said.
He pointed out that the original plateau proposal shrank to 14,000 square kilometres from 25,000 square kilometres to accommodate possible resource developments.
That compromise would have left 78 per cent of the region’s energy and mineral potential outside the wilderness area’s boundaries, but would have preserved 89 per cent of its conservation value and about 90 per cent of its traditional use value.
“It has opened up the question of whether the federal government is negotiating in good faith,” he said.
Powell points out that there are 13 other protected areas in the N.W.T. currently under consideration. Most those areas depend on interim protection measures that the federal cabinet can simply choose not to review, much as it has done with the Horn Plateau.
Dehcho Grand Chief Sam Gargan has warned that prospectors found in the area will be treated as trespassers.
He was scheduled to take Kent on a flyover tour of the area Tuesday afternoon