K'JIPUKTUK (HALIFAX) - The Ecology Action Centre, Sierra Club Atlantic Canada, and Council of Canadians express their solidarity with Pictou Landing First Nation and neighbouring communities in their fight to defend and clean up their home waters.
“The ongoing pollution and contamination of a once pristine coastal estuary and beach is a disgrace. It is absolutely the responsibility of the province of Nova Scotia to clean up this site once and for all” says Angela Giles, Council of Canadians.
The groups are calling on Premier McNeil to honour his April 2014 promise to clean up Boat Harbour. “Cleaning up Boat Harbour will begin to rectify a historic injustice”, says Jennifer Graham, Coastal Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre. “The Pictou Landing First Nation and its neighbours have unfairly borne the burden of pollution caused by a pulp mill for too long, and they are experiencing the health impacts from their proximity to the ongoing pollution” says Graham.
The groups also want an investigation into Monday’s leak of untreated effluent into the Harbour, to determine its causes as well as the extent of the damage. “This is the second effluent leak in the last six years”, says Gretchen Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Canada Chapter. “This raises questions about how serious Northern Pulp is about environmental responsibility. We expect the company to bear the costs of clean up, and not the public”.
The Ecology Action Centre, Sierra Club of Canada Atlantic, and Council of Canadians ask all political parties to work together to approve a long term plan for clean up at Boat Harbour.
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