[Justanothermember]

Originally Posted by FactaNV

Thank you for your kind words. I am of proud Ukrainian farmer stock from Springfield. We still have the farm and it's been run by our family for 7 generations. I love the land and the woods, streams and fields that surrounded our farm. When I learned about this project I was in the same boat, I thought it'd be great, lots of new money and jobs for our RM. But I soon learned they planned on using an unproven technique that would drill through two aquifers, potentially contaminating both aquifers and that doing so could and probably would introduce shale particulate (and the arsenic and lead that go with it) into the second, cleaner aquifer. Nevermind their plan to install tailings ponds uphill of the Brokenhead River and the sinkholes that were expected to ravage the Vivian area by drilling a thousand plus wells.

It became an easy choice for me at that point. The water and nature of SE MB was not worth making Albertans rich, especially with corporate AB's record of leaving the public holding the remediation bag when shit goes wrong. They also tried green washing their company by changing their name and saying the silica was for solar glass. Originally, it was supposed to be for fracking...lovely people at Sio Silica, who have lied to and condescended the locals since the start. I'm glad our province values people over profit unlike our neighbours to the West, especially with the possible destruction of 100,000+ people's water supply on the line.

Sorry for the wall of text all, I love my land and the people I grew up around. When I can afford it, I intend to move back to the farm and raise my children how I was raised and the fact these jokers seemed to have zero problem jeopardizing our water and environment really rubbed me the wrong way.

Fully agree.

What scares me though, is that this decision could be reversed as soon as a Tory govt is elected. I mean, Heather and Co were basically ready to rubber stamp this thing and proceed full steam ahead, regardless of the environmental and human health risks.