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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The federal government is seeking permission from city council to demolish the roaster stack at Giant Mine this summer but one councillor gave the clean-up team a rough ride last week after questioning its rush to bring in the wrecking ball.

"I think it is great that we can be saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, except from my standpoint, I'm not interested in saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars," said city councillor Dan Wong.

"I am interested in making sure that Great Slave Lake doesn't become a carcinogenic, arsenic trioxide bathtub."

Wong said the urgency to pull down the roaster complex is "a scare tactic" being employed by the federal government in hopes of getting out of proper environmental review.

He called on the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board - gutted last week with six staff layoffs - to provide a full-scale public consultation process in response to the Giant Mine remediation team's submitted development plan.

"There is no part of this project that should be exempt from the full regulatory review. I see this as a way to circumvent that," said Wong.

Adrian Paradis, acting project manager of the remediation team, addressed council alongside seven other team members, saying it will be applying for development and demolition permits to tear down the heavily contaminated roaster complex on site.

"The roaster is in bad shape and is a risk that governments are not willing to accept," said Paradis. "Something will happen and it is no longer acceptable to wait for that to happen and wait for full permitting appliance. So now we are trying to elevate it and get through all of our licensing, permitting and planning to implement this summer."

The environmental impact review board has yet to present its environmental assessment of the remediation team's development plan, but Paradis expects it will be out soon.

Paradis gave council the team's 10-year plan, which is scheduled to begin in 2017 and may wrap up in 2025. He touched on plans for the need to re-stabilize underground chambers, clean up Baker Creek, some of the open pits, waste rock, and contaminated soils, and take down old contaminated buildings and treat surface and mine water at the 50-year-old mine, which closed for good in 2004.

Paradis said the city remains an integral partner as a governing and regulatory body on the project.

"It is not our intention to scare people. We are trying to outlay what the risks are and what the concerns are and to make sure people are informed. If it is coming across as scare tactics then I have to work on my delivery to ensure that doesn't happen," he said.

Paradis added there is a potential for future restrictions on the public dock at Giant Mine and the Great Slave Cruising Club, but that likely won't come for another few years.

"Right now the cruising club and marina are not a priority area for us and are not where we really have to get into because they are not a large risk," he said, indicating the team wants to do any cleanup in those areas during the winter to avoid interfering with boaters.

"So (that work) may be delayed for a couple of years. In talking to the city, they might want us to get in there earlier and it might become a higher priority for us."

Mayor Mark Heyck said he hopes the remediation team will come to council every three to six months in order to give updates on the project's progress.

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