Ottawa halves cleanup budget
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 21/01) - Those responsible for the clean-up of Colomac mine will have to make do with less than half the money they requested for this year.
The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development recently confirmed it will provide $3 million to clean the abandoned gold mine site 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife.
Scott Mitchell, head of regional contaminated sites division, said the cut puts on hold the clean-up of a tank farm and 13 kilometres of road.
Minor instead of major work will be done on an airstrip and clean-up of debris around the mine site will also be scaled back.
Excluding Giant mine, the department has $7.7 million this year to clean contaminated sites in Nunavut and the NWT.
The lion's share -- $4 million -- will be spent cleaning up an abandoned military site on Resolution Island, off the southern tip of Baffin Island.
Remaining funds will be spent on Contact Lake ($28,000), the Rayrock mine ($200,000) and contaminants monitoring ($250,000).
