Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Lois Little wishes more members of the public would engage in challenging the Giant Mine Remediation project.

A Yellowknifer since 1975, Little was one of only two members of the public who spoke up during the two-hour question and comment period of the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board hearing last Tuesday.

The hearing, which ran both Tuesday and Wednesday, allowed the public and interested parties to voice concerns over the "freeze block" option put forth by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) to contain the 237,000 tonnes of deadly arsenic trioxide dust remaining after Giant's 50 years of gold production.

"It's hard to get the public engaged," said Little.

But that doesn't mean it's not important, she said.

"If we screw this up, we're endangering our children, our families, our communities - everybody."

Gary Vaillancourt, the only other member of the public to speak up, said despite the low turnout he knows people aren't happy. Little, for one, is concerned about a problem that will need to be managed in perpetuity and the stress it will place on the residents of Yellowknife in the long-term.

Unfortunately, said Daryl Hockley, the senior technical advisor on the clean-up plan, perpetuity, or forever, is a reality.

"This community is going to be managing arsenic for the long-term," he said. "The choice is 'How are we going to manage it?' - not if."

The "how" was up for debate. While input from the public at large remained minimal, the hearing was attended by representatives from INAC and the GNWT, the City of Yellowknife, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the North Slave Metis Alliance.

Central to the City of Yellowknife's presentation was the need to be compensated for the land at the Giant Mine site that cannot be cleaned up to residential standards. Currently, INAC only proposes to restore the land the industrial standards, which will not satisfy the city's desire to eventually build homes on the site.

The Giant Mine site accounts for 6.2 per cent of the municipal area, and if it were rendered unable to be developed, said Mayor Gord Van Tighem, "It would indicate a significant reduction of our available future income."

Representatives from Yellowknives Dene First Nation contended that before the land belonged to the city, and before the mine existed, the area was prime for hunting and berry-picking.

"We're very apprehensive about the outcome," said Rachel Crapeau of the arsenic freezing option.

In addition to concerns over soil and water quality and the effects of global warming, parties and members of the public discussing the remediation plan also raised legacy issues and questions over moving part of the Ingraham Trail. Tawanis Testart, an environmental assessment officer for the board, said it will consider all issues voiced during the hearing and decide what issues will be part of the assessment and what won't be, as the board proceeds to the evidence-gathering stage of the assessment. The hearing will also help the board prioritize issues, she added.