Peat moss harvesting could occur as close as 15 kilometers from Air Ronge. (Submitted photo/Lambert Peat Moss Inc.)

By Derek Cornet

industry

‘We were just overjoyed,’ Peat moss group happy with growing opposition to proposed project

May 3, 2021 | 1:37 PM

A member of a local group opposed to peat harvesting in northern Saskatchewan was happy to hear Cumberland NDP MLA Doyle Vermette speak against the proposed project last week.

Vermette stood in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan on April 28 and asked the provincial government to protect the boreal forest and reject the Lambert Peat Moss development. He explained more than 20,000 people have signed an online petition with many being residents of his constituency.

“Many good northern residents, local trappers, traditional land users and leaders are opposed to the proposed peat moss mining near La Ronge,” he told other MLAs last week.

Kona Barreda is a member of For Peat’s Sake, which has been opposed to the proposed development since it was first announced in 2020. She’s also a Grade 7 teacher at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s (LLRIB) Senator Myles Venne School and noted students in her class watched Vermette’s announcement online.

“We were just overjoyed,” Barreda said. “We watched the live feed in my classroom and, after he presented, we all cheered. We could hear the excitement of the kids and we were pretty happy about that.”

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Barreda launched the petition last fall and she said out of the more than 20,000 signatures, at least 1,000 are from the tri-communities. She noted the topic has become a classroom discussion and she has integrated the developed into her English language arts and science lesson plans.

Barreda doesn’t believe peat moss extraction can be done sustainably, warning there will be other changes in the ecosystem if the project goes forward. When the LLRIB announced last month that the council was against the project, she was happy to receive the support.

“We were so thankful our leadership recognized the importance of our land and they are going to back us up in fighting this big company,” Barreda said.

In an email to larongeNOW, a Lambert Peat Moss representative stated opinions and decisions about the company’s proposed project have been made based on incomplete and preliminary information, as well as speculation as to the final project design and operations process.

Read more about Lambert Peat Moss’s reaction to local opposition here.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno