New Brunswick Town Bans All Uranium Exploration, Mining

Moncton, New Brunswick (AHN) - A call to ban all uranium exploration and mining in New Brunswick has been passed unanimously by the Moncton city council Monday night. The city council's motion stands as a way to protect the environment and the people's health, Councilor Pierre Boudreau said.

The councilors are worried on the presence of uranium exploration, facilitated by the mining giant Vale Inco (formerly known as CVRD-Inco), on the city's outskirt in the south and west areas.

Two weeks ago, a smaller exploration company announcement said that it found an interesting deposit up north.

"I believe this resolution needs to be passed tonight to protect our province too. I don't think it should be the garbage dump of North America, which some of our premiers seem to want to make it," Councilor Louisa Barton-Duguay said on her interview with CBC News.

"We're talking about big money," CBC News quoted Boudreau saying. "That should not be what rules the day in New Brunswick on an issue that could affect the health of our children and ourselves."

Uranium mining and exploration is not only a dangerous practice, it doesn't get any better once it's out of the ground, Boudreau said.

To provide more information on the subject, a public meeting was scheduled to take place at the Capitol Theatre on March 30.