From the Canadian province that had more than its share of resource mega-developments to object to in 2017, DeSmog Canada was out late last year with a list of six projects that got it right.
The six include:
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- A run-of-river hydro project that will replace diesel generation in a remote part of the province, developed with the paid participation of Wuikinuxv Elders and community members and built to accommodate spawning salmon and grizzly bears
- A land-based salmon farm developed by Kuterra, a company owned by the ‘Namgis First Nation, that segregates farmed Atlantic salmon from wild Pacific species and uses geothermal energy to heat the tanks
- The Borden Gold project near Timmins, Ontario, where plans are in place to electrify the whole operation by 2021
- The SunMine solar project in Kimberley, B.C., which powers about 200 homes and generates nearly C$250,000 in annual revenue
- A community forestry project on B.C.’s Cortes Island in which the Klahoose First Nation and the Cortes Community Forest Co-operative co-manage licences covering about a third of the island
- A geothermal development project at Valemount, B.C.
“It’s not all bad news out there,” DeSmog writes, hence the list of “projects we want to fist-bump this year. We’re not suggesting they’re perfect; any large extractive project comes with an environmental cost. But these are projects that rise above the rest in their efforts to minimize that cost,” by building their plans around meaningful consultation with Indigenous peoples, minimizing environmental harms, and raising the bar for their industries.