Travel company donates $50K to help fund environmental law projects in Interior

Photo: Wells Gray Tours

Seated: Roland and Anne Neave; standing Terri Lynn Day, Pam Stewart, Shelby Lindley, Stephanie Dilling, Danny Kulkarni, Fraser Neave

A Kamloops-based travel company has donated $50,000 to help fund environmental legal action in the Interior.

Wells Gray Tours recently made the donation to West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL).

Roland Neave, owner and founder of Wells Gray Tours, said he researched several organizations that focused on environmental issues and was most intrigued by two issues presented by West Coast.

The first project led by West Coast has to do with the controversial Ajax copper-gold mine — an old mine just south of Aberdeen that was almost revived a decade ago by Polish mining giant KGHM.

According to Wells Gray Tours, WCEL has been assisting the Kamloops Area Preservation Association with legal advice about how to get the provincial government to assist in stopping the contamination from the Ajax mine from leaking into Peterson Creek.

The second project is in Ashcroft, and involves the expansion of railway activities near the Thompson River.

Neave said CN and CP are looking to expand in an area that could be harmful to the river. Ashcroft Slough Society is working on a legal case with WCEL and the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria.

The donation will also support a WCEL lawyer in Kamloops, Shelby Lindley, who deals with environmental issues in the Thompson Valley and Shuswap regions.

This is an annual donation Wells Gray Tours calls “A Portion for the Planet.” Throughout the next few years, the donations will help with other environmental issues in Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Victoria.