Federal Announcement on the Crawford Nickel Project
As Canada charts its path toward net zero and a shift to green technologies, we must make decisions that strengthen not weaken our climate efforts, uphold Indigenous rights, and protect the ecosystems that sustain us. Wildlands League, along with 14 other groups, outlined five key principles to guide a responsible and equitable green energy transition in the Principles for a Green Energy Transition:
- Ensure that we make the most of the resources and energy we use
- Make our economy circular
- Do mining right
- Ensure mining embraces environmental justice, and
- Make Indigenous Nations co-governance the standard practice
With these principles in mind, Wildlands believes the Crawford Nickel Project has the potential to make a meaningful contribution to the green energy transition. Unlike proposals that target undisturbed wilderness, carbon-rich peatlands, or critical wildlife habitat, or cause conflicts, the Crawford project is located in an area that is already disturbed and near existing roads and infrastructure, with workforces and it has established community agreements.
We recognize Canada Nickel’s commitment:
- to environmental assessment—rather than pushing for shortcuts
- to transparency and engagement with communities, municipalities and the public, and
- to Indigenous partnership with Taykwa Tagamou Nation and agreement with Mattagami, Matachewan, and Flying Post First Nations
We commend Canada Nickel and all its partners including Taykwa Tagamou Nation for the work they’ve done to date and hope the work continues to address outstanding environmental and social concerns.
The Crawford project represents the kind of critical minerals development Canada should be looking at—projects located in previously impacted areas, with community leadership and early Indigenous involvement—instead of building costly industrial ‘floating roads’ and opening up mines that would cause irreparable harm to intact ecosystems, globally significant carbon sinks, First Nations, and threatened species habitat in the Ring of Fire.
