I'm not sure where I left off, but I'll start where our concerns are.
Mining has the potential to significantly affect the environment through releases of toxic substances to the air, land, and water and the creation of long-term environmental liabilities. Direct disturbance to fish and wildlife is also a significant risk, as are the displacement of other uses of the area and the disruption of uses in areas adjacent to the project and along transportation corridors due to noise, visual pollution, and dust.
Given the proximity of the project to historic and current areas of use by our peoples, and given our community's financial interest in developments such as ecotourism and ecosystem services that may not be compatible with mining, the potential impacts of the project are much more significant. We have attached a map showing our current use in the area. It's in annex B.
The project is an open-pit operation to extract and process heavy rare earth elements. Our concern is heightened by the fact that there are currently no operating rare earth mines in Canada, and the only operating facility in North America is the newly reopened Molycorp mine in the U.S. We understand that this potentially has serious environmental effects related to water management, even though it operates in a relatively arid area.
In comparison, this project is in a temperate climate with significant and unpredictable rainfall where surface waters and groundwater will have to be managed and protected. This project involves mining rare earths that are not minerals that have been mined and processed in Canada and that have unique health and environmental impacts associated with the processing and waste from mining rare earths. It's also our understanding that this project, if approved, will be the first rare earths mine in Canada, so obviously there is no government regulation or experience with this kind of mining process.
As you learned from senior staff of the federal government, Natural Resources Canada is a long way from being able to show how to manage tailings and effluents safely or even being able to say how toxic rare earth effluents are.
Quebec, Canada, Matamec, and their partner, the Toyota Tsusho Corporation, are asking our two first nations and the local Québécois population to take on risk, accepting the Matamec project in the face of considerably more uncertainty than there is with other types of mining. This is clear from the testimony that Natural Resources Canada staff has given this committee.
Our two first nations also have concerns about foreign investment in this proposed rare earth mine without our free and informed consent. Our communities and the local Québécois population are expected to take on risk while Toyota capitalizes on resources.
Natural Resources Canada staff misled the committee members regarding the degree of federal oversight. From our experience with the Kipawa deposit, the federal uranium and nuclear safety regulations will not be invoked because the ore and waste are considered naturally occurring radioactive materials in the area.
We are also concerned that the testimony from Natural Resources Canada suggests that the rare earth projects they discussed with you were supported by the affected first nations. We have had no contact with Natural Resources and cannot understand how they came to this conclusion. I'm here to provide commentary on this for Eagle Village and Wolf Lake, and we strongly encourage you to seek comments on this statement from the indigenous people affected in other projects.
From the testimony before your committee, we also see that Matamec is part of the Canadian Rare Earth Elements Network of industry and universities that are involved in promoting that Canada declare that rare earths are a strategic resource and are seeking federal funding to support the research and development of rare earths processing, which could lead to central processing facilities in Canada.
The results of our cultural and socio-economic assessments already indicate that the Matamec rare earths project will have an irreversible impact on our quality of life, our customs and traditions, and our access to and use of our traditional lands. These impacts will have to be assessed, along with the cumulative impacts from other activities in our traditional lands.
We haven't yet assessed the potential environmental impacts of the proposed Matamec rare earths project, but we know that the proposed location of the open-pit mine, the waste rock tailings, the new road construction, the processing plant, and the tailings ponds are all located close to rivers, lakes, and wetlands in several watersheds of critical importance to our communities. In addition, there will be impacts from the construction of a power line to the site from the town of Témiscaming.
Independent of our formal review process, local area residents and members of our first nations have circulated a petition against the project.
To date the petition has 2,809 signatures, and their efforts to oppose the project have gained the attention of local and regional media. Our two first nations strongly object to having our area considered a national sacrifice area for mining unknown toxic rare earth as a strategic resource. Neither Canada, Quebec, nor Matamec have the social licence or the free, informed consent of our two first nations for this proposed rare earth project to proceed to the development phase.
We still need a lot more technical information regarding the management of the potential environmental impacts from rare earth mining. The corporation also has a long way to go to establish trust and a positive working relationship with our two first nations.
In closing, let me emphasize that this proposed rare earth project site is in the middle of our traditional lands, and we have never experienced mining in our region, let alone something as new and unknown as rare earths. We see more potential impacts than benefits at this point to our two first nations.
We also regret that the Government of Canada and Quebec have failed to meaningfully consult our two first nations about the proposed mining rare earth projects before it advanced to the current pre-development phase. As I have already pointed out earlier, we will make our own decision whether we consent to this rare earth project mine proceeding or not on our traditional lands. It's an Algonquin process.
Thank you, meegwetch.