Premier Ranj Pillai and Minister of Environment Nils Clarke, 

We are speaking up. As community members, local residents, and concerned citizens, we followed along frustrated with the ongoing situation at Eagle Mine, a disaster which has impacted and continues to impact nearby waters, lands, and people.

Firstly, we are grateful for the action taken by Yukon government and the First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun in ousting Victoria Gold to make way for a more collaborative and comprehensive emergency response. Now, we must look at how this happened in the first place, repeating the long pattern of failed mines in the Yukon.

We demand definitive action from the Yukon government to initiate an independent, public inquiry of the Eagle Mine disaster. 

The First Nation of Na-cho Nyäk Dun has rightly treated this as an emergency from the beginning, and we echo their call for an investigation under the Public Inquiries Act. We must look at why the heap leach failed—not only the narrow technical and physical ways of how it failed.  

Public inquiries like the one we are asking for gather and look at all the evidence with accountability and transparency to rebuild the trust this disaster has damaged.  

This disaster is yet the latest example showing Yukon is far behind when it comes to responsible mining. A public inquiry can help us change that. We must understand what policies, decisions, and actions from government and Victoria Gold management led to this disaster. 

We, as proud community members and residents of this beautiful territory, deserve to have all the facts about the Eagle Mine disaster. We need to be able to say that we did everything in our power to stop these disasters from becoming our legacy.