Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Deline (Jan 24/00) - Deline and Ottawa will work together to decide how to clean up the estimated 1.7 million tonnes of radioactive tailings dumped in Great Bear Lake.

Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Bob Nault met with Chief Leroy Andre and the community of Deline Jan. 19, to pledge the government's commitment to clean up or contain the uranium tailings at the Port Radium mine.

The uranium was mined by the Government of Canada at Eldorado mine in Port Radium and sold to the U.S. government for use in the construction of the first atomic bomb.

Nault said the government will commit to whatever resources are necessary to the project, but the first step is to work with the community.

"We want to start right away with the healing process of the community," he said. "That's above and beyond the issue of liability of the effects the mine had on the community members and their health."

A forum has been established called the Canada/Deline Uranium Table with a budget of $235,000. It is in the early stages of establishing a plan of action which will outline the appropriate studies and investigations, to be followed by the cleanup and monitoring.

"We have agreed to a work plan that will allow us to get some studies done on the effects of the uranium," Nault said. "From there we will go to looking at all the different sites within the region as to whether there are any hot spots and how we will mitigate those hot spots so that they don't affect any more people."

The Port Radium cleanup is one of a number of priority projects DIAND has to contend with, Nault said. He could not say if his office will commit to any cleanup at Rae Rock mine or Uranium City in Northern Saskatchewan.

"We're dealing with them as we will with Giant Mine and as we deal with other mines that have caused us some problems because of our lax regulations," he said. "We certainly have an obligation and that's our liability."

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Deline Dene Band chief Leroy Andre, said he's pleased with the way talks have gone, but his biggest concern is getting answers for his people.

"We want to try to get a basic understanding as to what the situation is at the mine; what the effects are on our people and animals," Andre said. "We have a lot of concern with any links to cancer, but it's all just speculation right now.

"We want to find some answers."

The band has conducted its own studies on the scarred land, but there still remains much to be learned, Andre said. "For now, what we are doing is identifying hot spots and have those spots fenced off, so the people and the animals don't have contact with the area."