Wednesday, December 15, 1999
In today's Yellowknifer, four long-time residents with extensive experience in mining and the environment, discuss possible methods of dealing with 250,000 tonnes of harmful arsenic trioxide bearing dust stored underground at Giant mine.
The credentials of Wayne Bryant, Dave Nickerson, Bob Bromley and Robert Spence speak for themselves and each has a unique view on how to deal with this immense problem.
Dave Nickerson points out that someday this stockpile may be a valuable resource due to its gold content. Moving it may not make sense.
Bob Bromley emphasizes that water is already seeping into the stopes that store this deadly byproduct. Even though it's now being captured by the water pumping system, preventing contamination of Baker Creek, Bromley feels it's inevitable this dust, if left underground, will eventually leach into Great Slave Lake.
Wayne Bryant warns that the 12 open pits and 24 openings at Giant mine have played havoc with the permafrost regime, a chief factor in securing these contaminants.
Robert Spence believes despite how daunting the task, a solution, providing the right people are involved, can be achieved. We agree.
No matter how you look at the situation surrounding Giant, it's not a pretty picture. For a mine that over its life pumped out about seven million ounces of gold ($1.4 billion in profits), the underground cleanup costs could go as high as $1 billion.
While the GNWT has spent $750,000 to date, DIAND, which is responsible for the underground cleanup, has yet to set a timeline, nor, according to our panel, has the department committed any money.
So what are we waiting for?
In these four local experts, we already have candidates qualified to be on a task force. That's just what may be needed to get the job of finding real solutions started.
Lynn Lake, Man. gets a gold star for seizing 2,400 ounces of gold from a mining company skipping town without paying $2 million in back taxes.
While we all expect honesty in business dealings, it doesn't always happen. Former Royal Oak CEO Peggy Witte illustrates time and again, through various court actions to get money paid to her after the bankruptcy and the pending charges in the United States, that people can be ruthless in pursuing their business interests.
Sometimes political leaders have to be equally ruthless in protecting the public interest.
To have taken similar action in the case of Royal Oak would have hurt Yellowknifers as much as shareholders, even though both suffered in the end due to mismanagement.
Still, the Lynn Lake approach shows what can be done if all else fails.
In Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, Scrooge's first action upon waking from his visit with the three spirits of Christmas, is to send a boy to buy a turkey for the Cratchit family dinner.
In keeping with that spirit of seasonal generosity, Yellowknifers have a chance to exercise share their goodwill through the Salvation Army's Adopt-A-Family program. Past all the gloss and glitter of the season's televised maudlin drivel and the high-impact marketing campaigns lies the ache of human need.
For far too many people, Christmas is a time of despair. The Salvation Army runs Adopt-A-Family so that those who enjoy the comforts that a job and a little money in the bank afford can make a difference to those in need.
Please help. After all, even Scrooge did.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
The large, boisterous crowds that showed up during the Kivalliq Region soccer trials in Rankin Inlet two weeks ago, was an exclamation mark to a point being made in our region.
Local sports play a very large and important role in our lives!
Rankin is not alone. Recreation directors across the Kivalliq have been reporting large crowds turning out for the regional trials they have hosted.
Anyone with any doubts as to the pressure being felt by rec directors to pull off successful events can give Rick Denison a call in Rankin.
Denison and his arena crew worked around the clock early this month trying to overcome unseasonably warm temperatures and have a firm ice surface in place for this past weekend's bantam camp and trials.
The voices ringing out during the past few months are growing in number and decibels.
With financial wrangling for the 2000-2001 capital plan now taking place in our capital, it's never been more important to let our government know the importance of sports to our communities.
Sports have a tremendous social impact in the Kivalliq.
Former Repulse Bay rec director William Beveridge, now an adult educator, speaks often of the value of sports to his community.
The bottom line in Beveridge's book is sports give local kids more to do, improves their self-esteem and self-image and helps keep them out of trouble.
Beveridge is a believer in the "idle hands" cliche when it comes to our youth.
Perhaps the most powerful statement on the role sports play in our communities came from Coral Harbour recreation director Noel Kaludjak when he was fighting to get a rollerblade floor installed in the Coral arena.
Kaludjak said with the addition of the surface, the chances that the same number of kids who began the summer in Coral would still be around in the fall immediately improved.
Think about it. It's that important.
Everyone knows the fight going on right now to gain access to limited funding.
A new school for Baker, improved runways for Repulse and Whale, more housing in Arviat and Chesterfield, and better health and education services all around are viewed by most as top priorities.
And rightly so.
However, sports has evolved to the point in the Kivalliq where it is being recognized as a benefit to communities on a number of different levels, especially with our youth.
This is not to mention the opportunities sports present in education through scholarships, life skills and personal development.
We hope, when our politicians begin dividing up the capital plan early in the new year, they realize these attributes so that sporting activities across the region get their fair piece of the pie.
It's long overdue.