Yellowknife (Apr 11/05) - The Giant Mine townsite bears all the features of what developers would call "prime real estate."

It's on the waterfront, there's a marina next door, and cottage country is only a short drive down the road.

NWT Mining Heritage member Walt Humphries would like to see the old town site at Giant mine turned into a tourism district. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

However, it also sits on some of the most arsenic-contaminated land in North America.

A study by the Royal Military College of Canada found arsenic levels in the soil up to 3,300 parts per million. The Canadian guideline is 10 ppm, although naturally-occurring levels in Yellowknife can vary anywhere from 3-150 ppm.

There's also the mine site itself to consider. The headframe, mill and a multitude of other buildings and structures on the site present a daunting proposition for anybody who wishes to develop it.

"Is it going to be turned into green space and soccer pitches? Probably not," says Emery Paquin, director of environmental protection for the GNWT's Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Last month, the territorial and federal governments reached an agreement that calls for the entire Giant Mine surface area to be cleaned up to "industrial standard" over a period of 10 years.

That means most of the buildings on the mine site - many of which have stood for 60 years - will be torn down and carted away.

The townsite itself presents a different problem. About 20 houses still stand there.

Five families of mine workers are living there for the time being, although they will be gone after this summer when the mine's soon-to-be-former owner, Miramar, shuts off the boilers.

The city acquired the townsite in lieu of taxes owed by the mine's former owner Royal Oak in 2000.

But if the federal and territorial governments will only commit to cleaning up the town site to an industrial standard, that means someone else will be on the hook to bring the once-bustling neighbourhood up to an allowable standard and build new homes there.

The city tried to get federal and territorial authorities to commit to cleaning it up to "residential standard" before taking over the lease, but they said it was too expensive.

Last week at a city council committee meeting, councillors got their first look at the surface clean-up agreement and were noticeably unimpressed.

"The biggest problem is that it's taken so long to get there, and there doesn't seem to be any reference to the city," says Coun. Bob Brooks.

"What we wanted to see is recognition and involvement with the city because the city is the end-user of that land."

Yellowknife grew rich with its two gold mines, but now that they're closed, the city is in a tricky position, says Mayor Gord Van Tighem.

The city is literally hemmed-in from the north and south by closed mine sites that won't be much good for anything other than a pair of industrial parks.

"If you want industrial standard and you're way out in the boonies that's not a problem," the mayor says.

"But in a growing city, maybe you'd want to look a little higher up the scale."

Paquin says, however, that it would be awfully difficult to cover up Yellowknife's gold mining past with sod alone.

"The land was under an industrial lease," says Paquin.

"The company, whether it was Cominco or Giant, allowed its employees to place houses on industrial land, but it was never zoned for residential purposes."

He says no plans for remediation will go forward without consulting the city and the Yellowknives Dene first.

Walt Humphries, a member of the NWT Mining Heritage Society, says his group would like to keep a few of the old houses at Giant as heritage sites.

"I think that whole area, with the marina and a museum, would make a nice little tourist district for Yellowknife."