Rural Saskatchewan people always seem to be facing an uphill battle, even if they don’t spend much time thinking about.
Most rural folks are just too damn business trying to eke out a living — whether they are farming or operating a small rural business trying to keep their customer base at time of shrinking rural populations.
But when their very way of life is threatened, they fight tooth and nail.
This is now the case for Southey area residents battling Yancoal over a $3.6-billion solution potash mine that has the support of Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party government.
The pitched battled made its way to the legislature earlier tis month, when some 70 local residents came to tell their story.
“Ten years ago the province was begging to have a community like ours, now they are set to destroy it,” Southey businessman Neil Wagner told reporters. “Our concern is about the environmental impact this is going to have and that’s our issue with it.”
And according to Southey area farmers and businesses that will be directly impacted by the mine location, there battle with state-owned Chinese mining company is a classic David-versus-Goliath story.
Yancoal has already secured a license to use Buffalo Pound reservoir (Regina’s water source, so city residents have a dog in this fight, as well) in the neighbour of 11 and 12 million cubic metres of water annually.
But fear of their water being contaminated is only the beginning of it for local residents, who also fear their property being split, the loss of wildlife and even their children’s safety being put at risk.
“If this could happen to us, every farmer in the province should notice,” said Karla Hegglin, another area farmer. “It could happen to them, as well.”
Many of these residents are taken aback by the approach of the Sask. Party government — normally, ever mindful of its rural support.
However, the group expressed its disappointment with Last Mountain-Touchwood Sask. Party MLA Glen Hart, who they said confirmed that the government is willing to sacrifice their rural way of life in the name of economic development.
“This community may need to look at possibly sacrificing themselves because the government needs the resource money right now,” Wagner said, paraphrasing Hart at a meeting. “He mentioned it at the beginning of the meeting and he repeated it at the end of the meeting.”
Hart denied saying “anything like that” but snippets of a tape recording of the meeting have leaked out, suggesting the Southey residents aren’t far off base.
Moreover, Economy Minister Bill Boyd has since acknowledged he met with Yancoal as far back as 2012 and has pushed for the proposal.
Of equal frustration is the bureaucratic process, in which the local residents say the local rural municipal don’t have the capacity to contribute in the environmental process. Meanwhile, the residents feel that Yancoal has done the absolute minimum in what the people describe as a “broken” process.
Finally, but maybe most significantly, it is a battle within the community as well, making this fight even tougher.
The local area is clearly split between those farmers directly affected and those less directly impacted and seeing a huge financial benefit of having jobs and economic activity next door.
All this makes for an uphill battle, causing one to wonder why they these people think they have a chance at winning.
But in spirit of rural people, the Southey farmers seem to have an answer.
“If you feel you’re too small to be effective: Have you ever been in a room with a mosquito in the dark?” said business owner and resident Thera Nordal. “We will continue to make noise until our voices are heard.”
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
