New Brunswick·NewFederal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says New Brunswickers shouldn’t get their hopes up about progress on the Sisson Mine. Pierre Poilievre says during N.B. visit that ‘major projects’ approval means more bureaucracy for stalled mineListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence. Pierre Poilievre visited a homebuilding company and met workers in Fredericton on Thursday. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says New Brunswickers shouldn’t get their hopes up about progress on the Sisson Mine.The proposed tungsten and molybdenum mine north of Fredericton, stalled for more than a decade, was one of the projects the Carney government sent to its Major Projects Office last week.“Don’t expect much,” Poilievre warned during a CBC News interview after a tour of Atlantic Modern Homes Ltd., a Fredericton homebuilder.“The Liberals are saying the progress they’ve made is that they’re taking the idea, putting it on a piece of paper and sending it to a new office for even more consideration.“It’s time for the federal government to do one thing: get out of the way, grant the permit and let the project go forward.”WATCH | ‘Let the project go forward’: Poilievre on N.B.’s Sisson Mine :Federal Conservative leader questions Carney’s moves on N.B. minePierre Poilievre says “major projects” process is just more bureaucracy for New Brunswick’s Sisson Mine.The Conservative leader stopped short of predicting the mine would not happen.“We’ll see,” he said, pointing out that Dominic LeBlanc, a federal cabinet minister and a New Brunswick MP, predicted in 2017 — when the mine won approval through a federal environmental impact assessment — that construction would start the following year.LeBlanc did indeed say in June 2017 that “we’re confident that the construction will begin next spring.”Poilievre says the federal government should just allow the Sisson Mine project to go forward. (Sisson Mining Ltd. )“We’re once again seeing promises of things that might one day happen, promises that they’ve made for almost a decade and that they keep breaking,” Poilievre said Thursday.In a statement, a spokesperson for LeBlanc said the Major Projects Office will help speed projects like the Sisson Mine to fruition. Unions, private-sector executives and others recognize the office’s “transformational potential,” the statement said. “It’s unfortunate that the Conservative Party is too focused on its own internal turmoil and not able to put forward a positive vision for this country.”That’s a reference to the defection of one of Poilievre’s MPs to the Liberals and the decision by another to leave federal politics in the new year.The Sisson Mine already had a provincial environmental impact approval at the time of LeBlanc’s bullish comments in 2017.Dominic LeBlanc, a federal cabinet minister and a New Brunswick MP, has previously said construction of the mine would start by 2018, which didn’t happen. (CBC)The province had also signed an accommodation agreement with Wolastoqey chiefs.But the mine hasn’t advanced since then, in part because of low mineral prices on the global market that have made the business case for investors questionable.Last week’s referral of the mine to the Major Projects Office doesn’t necessarily mean the project will be designated under the Building Canada Act, which allows for fast-tracked approval under a range of federal regulatory processes.Ottawa says projects that aren’t designated can still benefit from support, including co-ordinated efforts across multiple federal departments to win approval, and “strategies to address risks and support project advancement.”Premier Susan Holt says in Sisson’s case, that means an offtake agreement, a guarantee of sales of the minerals, and a “price floor” — a minimum price the mine could count on for its minerals. “Those two tools help attract investment and secure the value of the resource,” Holt said last week.Poilievre would not say whether he supported the price floor concept, arguing the government should “get out of the way” by lowering taxes and speeding up permitting.Those moves, he said, would make Canada a more profitable place to do business “without a government subsidy or taxpayer risk on the backs of already burdened and starving Canadians.”CBC News has requested an interview with the CEO of Northcliff Resources about the Sisson project’s likely timelines but the company hasn’t responded.ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Farley is a Fredericton-based reporter at CBC New Brunswick. Originally from Boston, he is a journalism graduate of the University of King’s College in Halifax. He can be reached at sam.farley@cbc.ca
Federal Conservative leader questions Ottawas Sisson Mine process
