Can You Build an Open-Pit Mine in an Urban Centre? Big Copper Versus a Small City and the Urban Environment in a B.C. Interior Community

Authors

  • Terry Kading
  • Elisabeth Bass

Abstract

The citizens of the City of Kamloops have found themselves at the centre of a controversial debate over the implications of a bizarre foreign-domestic investment proposal - the establishment of a huge open-pit copper and gold mine that extends within the municipal boundaries proximate to the main residential area of this regional centre of 85,000+ citizens. It is our contention that the extent to which this mining proposal has been able to proceed reveals the lengths to which environmental and community concerns have to be minimized by all levels of government to maintain a growth strategy based on low-taxes, balanced budgets and a relianceon private investment, particularly in response to the 2008 global financial crisis. This is not a mining proposal in which a community will emerge in response to the investment - with the ability to determine the appropriate distance from the mining activity, but a situation where the mining activity will be imposed upon a substantial population with undetermined environmental and health implications that may havedire implications for the livability and economic future of the residents of this city. The case of Kamloops raises the question of whether or not municipalities in Canada have any status or protection against aggressive corporate investment decisions with dramatic health and economic affects, for as both the opponents and the mining industry have observed,

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How to Cite

Kading, T., & Bass, E. (2013). Can You Build an Open-Pit Mine in an Urban Centre? Big Copper Versus a Small City and the Urban Environment in a B.C. Interior Community. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, 25. Retrieved from https://alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/article/view/20599

Issue

Vol. 25 (2014): Climate Change and Its Discontents

Section

Articles

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Articles are published in Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research under the Creative Commons "Attribution/Non-Commercial/No Derivative Works" Canada licence.

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