More than 50 organizations are calling on provincial and territorial governments to implement the recommendations of an independent report to prevent mine waste leaks similar to the Mount Polley disaster in British Columbia last year.
In a letter to 13 ministers, the groups ask that governments implement the recommendations released in January by an independent expert panel, which reviewed the massive tailings leak.
Twenty-four million cubic metres of mine waste flowed into area lakes and waterways last August after a breach of the tailings dam at the central B.C. mine.
At the Energy and Mines Ministers' Conference in Halifax on Tuesday, B.C. Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett says the incident at Mount Polley was discussed at the meeting and other provinces are taking a look at the report.
Ugo Lapointe of MiningWatch Canada, one of the groups who signed the letter, says it's encouraging to know Mount Polley was part of the meeting's agenda.
But Lapointe added that the meetings were behind closed doors, so any outcomes of those discussions are not publicly known.
Bennett says his province has already committed to adopting all of the report's recommendations.
