A working group including staff from the departments of Environment and Climate Change, Lands and Forestry and Energy and Mines were tasked with creating the socioeconomic study to consider the effects of the designation.
In an email to a colleague at the Environment Department, John MacNeil, registrar of mineral and petroleum titles for Energy and Mines, writes that “I feel that we may not be experts in socio-economic assessments.” He goes on to say he has concerns about the process.
One of the things about the potential designation that makes it contentious for some people is what it would mean for the proposed Cochrane Hill gold mine program.
Donald James, executive director of the geoscience and mines branch of the Energy Department, was blunt in his assessment of the designation being considered at all.