Pond Inlet backs Baffinland
Hamlet calls for mine's application to move to impact review board
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, July 13, 2015
MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
Only days after the federal government announced it would fund 75 per cent of a new $40-million port in Pond Inlet, the hamlet's council agreed to back Baffinland's goal of bypassing the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) decision to deny the mining company's request to ship iron ore almost year-round.
"The mayor and most members of council had felt that the best way to discuss potential impacts on the project and with the winter shipping route would be to have a Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) hearing within the community of Pond Inlet," Mayor Charlie Inuarak wrote in a June 30 letter to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Minister Bernard Valcourt.
The letter came a day after a special council meeting June 29, and shortly after the June 26 federal announcement of the port funding.
The planning commission's recent decision would bar the mining company from using icebreakers to clear a path in the water between Milne Inlet and Pond Inlet 10 months a year. Currently, the company can only transport iron ore from its Mary River mine during the two-month open water season. A clause in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement says Valcourt can grant an exemption to the decision.
The hamlet's support goes against opposition by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated to an exemption for the company. Premier Peter Taptuna has already expressed his support for an exemption.
QIA president PJ Akeeagok said last month that the NPC and NIRB were created to give Inuit more say in big decisions that would affect their way of life, expressing concern that an exemption would set a dangerous precedent, allowing future projects to bypass their oversight.
