From an article in the Juneau Empire. A lot of fuss is being kicked up in Alaska because they are worried about all those mines opening in BC.

One of the things people here are concerned about are the cumulative effects of all the mines. People have said maps of BC’s proposed mines make the province look like it has the measles. To what extent you all are considering cumulative effects?

We are developing what’s known as a cumulative effects framework for British Columbia. We’ve been working on it for two years. I think we are leading, in Canada, in terms of recognizing that there is such a thing as cumulative effects from a series of industrial activities that are normally assessed project by project.

We will have it in place within the next year or two. The extent to which mine expansion is actually happening in the transboundary area, I think, is much less than what the public seems to believe here. (Points to the proposed Galore Creek Mine on a map.) Galore Creek was going to happen, two or three years for sure. There’s nothing going on at Galore Creek today. Schaft Creek might get developed long before Galore Creek. It’s not ‘Don’t worry, be happy, we’re never going to build any more mines.’ We hope to build some more mines, because they’re good for the economy, and first nations support them, and they’re great for training and for jobs, and we’ve got a good process, but it’s not happening hastily, and it’s certainly not happening in this hugely rushed, comprehensive way that folks worry about.

--http://juneauempire.com/local/2015-08-28/qa-bill-bennett