Burned out First Nation in northern B.C. gets help from gold mining firm

TELEGRAPH CREEK, B.C. – A First Nation struggling to recover from a devastating forest fire that burned through its community last year has received some welcome help from a gold mining firm.

The Tahltan Central Government says in a news release that the Tahltan Nation has been handed a cheque for $250,000 from Pretivm, which owns the Brucejack gold mine about 400 kilometres south of the community of Telegraph Creek.

Chad Norman Day, president of the Tahltan Central Government, says there is still a lot of work to do in Telegraph Creek and the donation will go a long way to helping those who were affected.

A massive wildfire last August rolled through the community, destroying 21 homes and damaging many others.

In November, residents began returning to the community after modular homes were brought in to create a new subdivision.

Feddie Louie, the community’s emergency operations director, said then that $12 million was spent on making Telegraph Creek livable again.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the name of the mine was Bluejack. Feddie Louie’s name was also misspelled.