Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE
A company frustrated by regulatory roadblocks submitted four recommendations in the form of questions to the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development late last month.

Uravan Minerals has decided to abandon its project at Garry Lake, 245 km northwest of Baker Lake after the Nunavut Impact Review Board ordered an environmental impact statement because of concerns about the diminishing population of the Beverly caribou herd. The GNWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources website states the herd's traditional calving grounds were near Beverly Lake and the Thelon River system in the NWT but more recently have moved north near Garry, Sand and Deep Rose lakes in Nunavut. - graphic courtesy of Uravan Minerals Inc.

The recommendations were part of a letter where Uravan Minerals describes millions of dollars in lost funds, unrealistic expectations and general ineffectiveness of the Nunavut mineral exploration regulatory process.

Uravan has decided to walk away from its interests in Garry Lake's uranium deposits, located 245 km northwest of Baker Lake, after the Nunavut Impact Review Board recommended in 2008 the company complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) for its exploratory work, an unusual and costly request for Uravan.

"I guarantee you that if Uravan was told, 'OK, at the end of the day you're going to have to do an EIS on this project before you get an approved land use permit,' we would have never gone," said Larry Lahusen, chief executive officer of Uravan Minerals Inc.

"They allowed us to step into a minefield without telling us there's a landmine in there."

The Nunavut Impact Review Board has publicly acknowledged the recommendation is unusual for a project of this size, but ultimately decided a low population count of the Beverly caribou herd and a high level of mining activity in the area were cause for extra concern.

"Around that time (2008) there were a number of companies that were pushing into this area and proposing projects in this area," said Ryan Barry, executive director of the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

"By the time it got to this particular project ... this was going to be the fourth or fifth project in the same area and at the same time numbers were coming out for the Beverly caribou herd that were very low and startling."

Lahusen says the decision shows the board's severe lack of understanding of how industry and the regulatory system in the rest of Canada works.

He said an environmental impact statement on such low-impact work would waste time, resources, and result in very little useful information.

"That is where I think the lack of consultation, I'll use that same word that is so common in the aboriginal world, that they haven't done with the mining industry," he said.

He also said decisions like these will likely have negative effects on the territory's economic development.

"I don't think they understand that resource development is really the only thing that can support economic development in those areas," he said. "You can't grow corn. You can't raise cows. You can't grow wheat. Mineral and oil and gas resources are sort of a top priority."

Barry said the board is not concerned that the situation is a representation of problems in the system or an example of stifled development.

"In Nunavut, there is quite a large amount of exploration that is currently occurring," said Barry.

"We have some of the strongest exploration expenditures in Canada. We certainly feel that the system itself is working and, in order for the system to work, it does mean that at certain times decisions will be made that certain companies won't agree with or won't fully like."

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada did not respond to questions from News/North regarding the recommendations or considerations for regulatory reform.

Lahusen had not received a reply to the letter, sent Oct. 31, as of press deadline.

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Minister John Duncan spoke in Yellowknife last week about the government's interest in improving the regulatory system in both Nunavut and NWT.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.