As the federal government halt's the environmental assessment for the Cochrane Hill gold mine project owned by St. Barbara Ltd. the future of Archibald Lake Wilderness Area is unclear.  

This is a small win for us here in St. Mary's and this is why.  This termination unfortunately does not stop St. Barbara from reapplying and in fact a statement following the federal announcement by Sara Wallace, Head of Permitting for St. Barbara Ltd, states they remain committed to successfully permitting a gold mining project at Cochrane Hill. 

We all know St. Mary's is not an appropriate location for a giant open pit gold mine and we applaud the federal government for the termination of the environmental assessment!  Two very significant drainage basins would be affected by an open pit mining project on Cochrane Hill.  Both very important to the future success of the river. 

Here is the kicker -  A large portion of one of those drainage basins proposed to be protected as a Wilderness Area now sits in limbo.  The previous provincial liberal government has gone through all the required consultations, completed a new map and planned for a public access road.  Now the fate of this designation sits awaiting the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Tim Halman to sign off on it and that it is it. 

An opportunity has presented itself because there is legally no longer an actual mining project on the regulatory books even though we don't know for how long.  It means there is no longer any reason for the provincial government to hesitate or further delay the long-awaited designation of Archibald Lake as a protected provincial wilderness area.  Therefore the opportunity for Minister Halman and Premier Houston to do the right thing and finalize the protection of Archibald Lake as a Wilderness Area is right now!  

St. Mary's River Association and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society are teaming up to create a letter writing campaign asking for this protection to be finalized without hesitation.  Our campaign will start tomorrow August 8th and all you have to do is sign, send and share.  

Take care all!