Careful planning and discussion can prevent the irrevocable loss of unique habitats and places of deep cultural or historical importance.
It only makes sense that society would want to investigate and flag areas that are important to people before allowing them to be arbitrarily trampled, bulldozed, blasted, dammed, cut down or covered by a tailings pond.
In fact, that’s the process the Yukon and Canadian governments agreed to follow in the Umbrella Final Agreement.
After a comprehensive and inclusive 6 year land-use planning process in the Peel Watershed, the Yukon government is now balking at accepting the Peel Watershed Planning Commission's Final Recommended Plan. Instead, government created its own plan and concepts, behind closed doors, that allow roads throughout the entire watershed and an increase in development. This could have grave consequences for the Peel Watershed, one of the continent’s last great wilderness areas. It could also erode public confidence in future land-use planning exercises in the territory, like the one beginning in the Dawson Region. This, in turn, could lead to the unwitting destruction of important ecological and cultural places and would undermine business certainty for resource companies considering operations in the territory.
CPAWS Yukon supports thoughtful, well-researched and broadly discussed land-use planning in the territory. And we demand the government to follow the good advice it receives through such a constitutionally mandated process.
Considering all uses of the land ,weighing the effects of competing interests and choosing which activities are important before allowing important, unique places to be irrevocably altered or destroyed simply makes sense.
It is also essential for healthy, well-balanced and self-sufficient Yukon communities.
Visit protectpeel.ca to Take Action
Sound planning is the cornerstone for good public policy. It is up to the public to defend this principle that is, in the end, simply an expression of its will. Government ignores this at its peril.
A majority of Yukoners believe most of the remote, beautiful and unique Peel wilderness should be preserved. The public must let their elected representatives know the Peel Watershed is hugely important and worth saving.
And people should familiarize themselves with the issues in the Dawson Region, because it is only through full participation that good planning can happen.
Visit: www.protectpeel.ca for more information
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