Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Fort Franklin (Aug 15/05) - A Deline community official says residents are angry about a media report aired last week claiming no link between community cancer rates and the nearby Port Radium Mine.

"We're dealing with trying to pull 70 years of research together to come up with some conclusions," said Danny Gaudet, Deline's chief negotiator for the Canada Deline Uranium Table.

"We can't interpret any of this stuff without having all the pieces in place."

Between 1942 and 1960, uranium ore was mined at Port Radium Mine, located 265 kilometres east of Deline on Great Bear Lake.

Thirty-five Dene spent time carrying ore above ground from the mine site.

Ore from the mine helped produce the atomic bombs dropped over Japan to put an end to the Second World War. Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the end of the war.

Deline became known as "the village of widows" in the late 1990s when concerns about potentially higher than usual cancer rates were raised by the community.

For the past five years, the Canada Deline Uranium Table - comprised of federal and Dene officials - has been compiling a comprehensive report on current and past health and environmental concerns.

Nearly $6.5 million has been spent setting up a Deline office and gathering historical and scientific information, as well as traditional knowledge.

Until the final report is released - delayed from March until mid-September - neither Gaudet nor the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs will confirm whether an actual link to cancer has been found.

"We're not finished our work, and we're not going to comment on the (report) as to whether it's right or wrong, but we are concerned the report may be premature," said Chris Cuddy, a DIAND spokesperson.

No official numbers on the number of former workers who died from cancer exist, but Gaudet remembers at least one fatal cancer case every six months in the 1990s.

NWT cancer rates lower

And the community cancer rate is also difficult to determine. A 1990 move which saw statistical gathering moved to the national level means cases occurring before then may have been recorded in Edmonton, Cuddy said.

But a 2003 report by the NWT Department of Health and Social Services found NWT males were actually 15 per cent less likely to get cancer than other Canadian men.

Approximately 1.7 million tonnes of uranium and silver tailings remain both on the Port Radium site, and in Great Bear Lake, much of which is said to have been contained.

Port Radium is one of 97 sites designated as a priority for clean up during a recent announcement by the federal environment minister.

The upcoming report is expected to address the potential of any past and present health risks.