Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 12/02) - A committee drawn from community stakeholders will be formed later this summer to look at long-term solutions for the clean up of Giant Mine.

David Nutter, acting head of a group tasked by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to determine what to do with the 270,000 tons of arsenic trioxide dust stored underneath Giant Mine, said a selection process for the committee will begin with the "next couple of months."

"The community's focus right now is certainly on the arsenic trioxide, but we look at that community liaison committee to be in place for years to come as the mine gets cleaned up," said Nutter.

"It's a much broader focus than just the arsenic trioxide."

Nutter said he expects the committee to last up to 15 years. Besides the arsenic trioxide, the committee will look at other plans for Giant Mine, including turning it into a heritage site.

Its prime role, however, said Nutter, will be to interact with the public during clean-up operations at the mine.

The committee will likely number six to nine people, and provide a cross-section of representatives from local stakeholders to the mine.

A GeoNorth report delivered to the Giant Mine project team last March recommends including representatives from the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, North Slave Metis Alliance, the city, local environmental organizations and two members from the public at large.

In preparing the report, GeoNorth examined several other community liaison committees across Canada, such as those established in Trail, B.C., and Five Island Lake, N.S., for mine sites in those communities.

Funding for the committee will come from the federal government, but Nutter said no price tag has been set yet.

"It will depend on a number of things," said Nutter.

"How many members, who they are ... We haven't really set up a budget yet."

At least one local environmental agency is saying it is high time the Giant Mine project team began work on establishing a public committee to look at the mine.

Kevin O'Reilly, research director for the Canadian Arctic Research Council, pointed to another report commissioned by DIAND, as a demonstration of the public's scepticism towards the government's resolve to clean up the mine site.

The report, completed by Lutra Associates last January, examined public awareness of the situation at Giant Mine, and many respondents said they didn't feel the public was being properly consulted.

Nor, said O'Reilly, does the public have enough time to examine the issue. DIAND is expected to make a decision on what to do with the arsenic trioxide dust by Oct.1

""It doesn't seem to me that the public has much time to be involved with this," said O'Reilly.

"Last June, there was a workshop that DIAND held, and the main recommendation coming out of that workshop was to set up some sort of committee to be involved in this, and DIAND still hasn't done it. It's been more than a year."