As ratepayers in the Gilmour…

As ratepayers in the Gilmour Ontario area, my family and I are shocked that the proposal from Pancontinental Resource Exploration advanced even as far as it has done. Obviously, a mine might be good business for the shareholders who will profit from a crew coming in and extracting anything of value till there's nothing left to strip; it may also be good in the short term for labourers doing the actual work. But the impact on the every watershed in the area will have serious, very long term ramifications for all the wildlife and wetlands, and incidentally the people who have invested their lives in working to make the area a good place to visit and raise families.

We live in a time when there can be no pretending our environment can be assaulted without cost to ourselves and our health and each particular part of our planet, just because a few people want to make money at its expense. In fact, we know very well what the costs would be, and better people than I are no doubt listing them in detail in other comments.

With all that information freely available, it is clear to me that a feasibility study for a possible mine is pointless. Whether or not it is found to be 'feasible' to make enough profit from a mine to cover its costs and enrich its owners, it is far from feasible to damage the wetlands and water system. Whatever brief, temporary gain might come the way of local people would be far outweighed by the cost to their future, and the future of the environment itself. And it is extremely likely that the feasibility study itself would do harm.

Ratepayers work hard to make their communities better, and in rural areas such as this, they work harder than most to unite their far-flung neighbours and look after each other. There is no place in our community for an outside company to come in for a flash of profit and leave longstanding destruction behind, which is exactly what a mine would do. Why allow a study for something we can already see would be a bad investment that will cost the province massive cleanup costs?

Our residents have been pulling together to promote eco-tourism and build a self-sustaining economy around businesses that actually help each other. Ontario should be taking the lead on environmentally sound practices like the ones promoted by our ratepayers. It is better for the taxpayers in this province, and it is more profitable for us all.