Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

QAMANITTUAQ/BAKER LAKE
Technical meetings for a Nunavut uranium project are still on schedule for May, despite a Nunavummiut lobby group's concerns.

Areva Resources Ltd.'s Kiggavik uranium project is located 80 km west of Baker Lake. Technical meetings hosted by the Nunavut Impact Review Board into the project remain tentatively scheduled for late April or early May. - photo courtesy of Areva Resources Ltd.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board says it stands by its tentative schedule, which would have technical meetings for Areva Resources Ltd.'s Kiggavik uranium project are scheduled for late April and early May.

The Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit (Makita) lobby group had submitted a letter to the Nunavut Impact Review board Dec. 3 expressing concerns about the scheduling.

The issue, the letter states, is that spring on-the-land activities will keep important voices, particularly regional hunters, from attending and contributing to the the proceedings.

"Holding the meetings in the spring will make it difficult for many residents to attend the community hearings at all," states the letter. "Doing so may discredit NIRB as an institution that really serves Nunavummiut."

Makita cites both the board guidelines which require it to "give due regard and weight to the tradition of Inuit oral communication and decision-making" and Article 12.2.27 of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, which requires the board to take all necessary steps to provide and promote awareness and participation in a hearing.

Makita requested the meetings be moved to the fall of 2013.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board, which has recently been accused of creating unnecessary regulatory delays, stood by its scheduling choices in a response letter to the lobby group sent Dec. 7.

"It is the NIRB's practice to consult with affected communities prior to scheduling any community meetings in order to recognize and accommodate community-specific scheduling conflicts to the extent possible," Ryan Barry, executive director of the board, states in the letter. "However, to automatically exclude spring and/or summer seasons from any steps involving community participation in all of the NIRB's processes would impose an unreasonable limitation on the board's ability to fulfil our mandate for a period of several months every year."

Barry went on to state indeterminate schedules cause problems for all parties participating in the review and could also create scheduling and budgeting issues for the board.

Barry also notes the current schedule is tentative and prior to finalizing the schedule the board will consult communities and involved parties "to ensure that, where possible, specific scheduling conflicts can be addressed ... and that opportunities are given to community members who may be on the land or otherwise unable to attend to have their questions and comments before the board throughout this process."

Ruby Mautaritnaak, water and sewer receptionist at the Hamlet of Baker Lake, said she wasn't sure about the community's thoughts on the meetings, but did say Baker Lake is very quiet in May when community members are at camps on the land and don't usually return until mid-July or early August.

She said the May camp and hunting season is very important for drying meat since June and July are too hot for the practice.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.