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Fighting Back: Canada Carbon’s Aggressive Legal Strategy Nov. 12, 2018 11:15 PM Environmental activists use lawfare to block mines they don’t like. Pretending to speak for their “community”, activists can effectively shut down perfectly responsible projects. If mining companies let them. Canada Carbon (V.CCB) took a different approach. The company is fighting back. Laws and regulations intended to protect the environment and communities can be misused by activists to shut down mining activity altogether or to delay that activity and impose enormous legal costs. A small group of so-called activists can derail a mining project for any one of a number of reasons having very little to do with the actual merits of that project or its environmental impact. Advertisement Some mining companies are willing to dig in for the long haul and accept the idea that the activists have the power to block a project for years, if not decades. Often, on advice of counsel, companies adopt a passive, compliant, stance hoping that, in time, the process will “work” and their project will be allowed to proceed. Canada Carbon (V.CCB) took a much more aggressive approach when activist factions in the community of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge (GSLR), the closest community to CCB’s proposed graphite mine and marble quarry, worked with the municipality to oppose the project. Back in December of 2016, CCB received the unanimous endorsement of the GSLR municipal council for its proposed graphite mine and marble quarry. At the time CEO R. Bruce Duncan remarked, “The approval of the Project by the Municipality of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge is a significant milestone in the permitting process required for the development of the Miller Project. Their unanimous approval will provide foundational support as we proceed with Project permitting.” Legal Activity A group of activists in the community filed legal action to attempt to force the municipality to withdraw its certification of the project and while these actions were defeated in Court in early 2018. A preliminary ruling by the Superior Court which dismissed an application for an injunction also stated that the applicants failed to show that the proposed project violated municipal guidelines (July 2017). A hearing was scheduled for February 2018 to argue the merits, but the activists withdrew their application at the last minute. The activists also went the political route. In late 2017, a new council was elected in GSLR and that council “made the declaration that Canada Carbon’s application did not conform with municipal regulations”. This, apparently, caused Quebec’s Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec to suspend (or perhaps – it is not clear – close) consideration of CCB’s application pending resolution of the conflicting municipal resolutions. Through 2018 there have been various legal skirmishes for the most part initiated by the activist members of the GSLR council. The skirmishing became nasty enough that, in May of 2018, a Councilor of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Marc-André Le Gris, was declared a vexatious litigant by the Superior Court of Quebec. While applying for judicial review of the GSLR flip flopping position, in June of 2018 CCB also brought an action for 96 million dollars in damages against the municipality. This action was designed to preserve CCB’s right to damages in the event that the actions “taken by the Municipality cause the Company's Miller Project to fail or irreparably jeopardize the achievement of social acceptability of the Project”. This action was taken based on an earlier, lower, price for the CCB graphite. The damage claim may be amended and the damages substantially increased in light of the signed off take for nuclear graphite a USD $40,000 a ton for a minimum of 200 tons. Counsel for GSLR sought to have the damages action dismissed as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (“SLAPP”) action. On November 9, 2018 Judge Danielle Turcotte of the Superior Court of Quebec rendered her judgement on the bench. Judge Turcotte rejected GSLR’s motion to strike down the damages claim and also denied the request for legal costs. Looking Forward Companies can waste a lot of time, energy and money embroiled in legal actions driven by activists. CCB’s strategy, faced with activists and politicians who appear to be acting in bad faith, has been to aggressively assert the company’s right to rely on the recorded decisions of the municipal council and the actual law governing mining and quarrying in the Province of Quebec. That governing law is interesting. It makes a distinction between “mining” and “quarrying”. Graphite is considered a “mineral” for purposes of the Quebec mining law and that means the jurisdiction is exclusively provincial under the Quebec Mining Act and exempted from municipal interference by way of Section 246 of the Planning Act which protects mining projects that are carried out under the Quebec Mining Act. Even Mayor Arnold of GSLR has publicly declared on numerous occasions that GSLR doesn’t have the power to block the Miller graphite mine project because mining falls under provincial jurisdiction not municipal jurisdiction. It is pretty clear that CCB has the right to mine its graphite without municipal approval if it meets the requirements of the Quebec Mining Act. The marble quarry does engage the provisions of the Planning Act and opens the question of the degree to which CCB was entitled to rely upon the earlier certification of the Municipality. In the November 9 release, Duncan stated, “Since GSLR agrees that GSLR does not have the right to block the graphite mine project because of Section 246 of the Planning Act, the Company is now taking the necessary steps to be able to obtain the authorizations necessary to proceed with the mining project.” On November 16, 2018 CCB will be presenting a motion in court to split its requested judicial review into a consideration of matters under the Mining Act, graphite, and the Planning Act, marble. The issues going to graphite are straightforward and it is reasonable to suppose that the company will be successful in its application. By “two tracking” the process, CCB is aiming to move forward rapidly on the graphite dimension of its project. Which makes a great deal of sense as the company has already concluded a provisional off take agreement for 200 tons of its nuclear class graphite at USD $40,000 per ton with Dunedin Energy Systems and is actively seeking additional off takes. The marble may take longer as the legal and regulatory road has more potential roadblocks. However, by moving aggressively on the legal front, CCB has taken the wind from the sails of the activists who oppose the Miller project. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | mit neuem team gehts wieder voran bei kanad. CCB |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | plautpower (13.11.18 16:42:14) |
| Beitrag: | 209 von 214 (ID:59206477) |
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