Media Advisory – First-Ever Audit on Mine Water Pollution in Canada: MiningWatch Canada Responds to Report from Commissioner on Environment & Sustainable Development – April 2, 2019

OTTAWA, April 1, 2019  – On April 2, 1pm, MiningWatch Canada will hold a news conference to respond to the first-ever audit by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development on mine water pollution issues in Canada.

When: April 2, 1h00pm – 1h30pm (Eastern Time)

Where: In Ottawa: 135-B Press Conference Room in West Block on Parliament Hill. Outside Ottawa: 1-416 764 8658 or 1 888 886 7786 (audio only).

What: Response to Commissioner of the Environment & Sustainable Development’s spring audit

Who: MiningWatch Canada

MiningWatch Canada will pay attention to following questions in relation to this audit:

• Scope of the audit: what was included, what was not.
• Environment Canada’s & Fisheries and Oceans’ enforcement of the law (e.g. Mount Polley mine disaster in 2014, and many other cases to be highlighted).
• Scope & effectiveness of current fines to deter corporations from polluting Canadian waters.
• Scope & effectiveness of current regulated pollutant limits authorized to enter waterways.
• Trends in the destruction of lakes, rivers and other water bodies authorized by regulations.
• Transboundary mine water pollution issues in shared waterways with the U.S.A.

Journalists are invited to contact us for further contacts of local and regional organizations working on mine water pollution issues in BC, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, as well as in the neighboring states of Montana and Alaska in the U.S.A.

For further information: Ugo Lapointe, Canada Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada, ugo@miningwatch.ca, 514.708.0134

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