NTI and DND work out details
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Mar 26/01) - Although clean-up on two armed forces radar sites is expected to begin this year, a pact to ensure Inuit get work on the projects is still under negotiation.
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) is negotiating the terms of the economic agreement with the Department of National Defence (DND).
Capt. Judith Bennett, an environmental spokesperson for DND, said that both parties continued to work on the agreement.
"The negotiations are ongoing and they will be meeting in the near future," she said.
The economic agreement is part of the co-operation agreement that was signed by NTI and DND in Cambridge Bay in the fall of 1998. That document ensured the clean-up of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line sites would go forward and addressed environmental issues, including what to do with the contaminants.
The economic agreement will ensure Inuit labour and businesses handle the bulk of the work, estimated to take 10 years, and also provides the finances to pay for the clean-up of the 15 DEW-line sites DND is responsible for in Nunavut.
Clean-up of the other 23 sites in the territory falls to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
James Eetoolook, NTI's first vice president and their lead player on the DEW-line work, said the clean-up would cost about $200 million.
Work on two of the DEW-line sites near Kugaaruk/Pelly Bay and Qikiqtarjuaq /Broughton Island is slated to begin this summer. DND said that will go forward even though the agreement has not been finalized.
