SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Post-devolution, the territorial government will become responsible for managing, inspecting and ultimately cleaning up any contaminated sites – such as defunct mine sites – that are abandoned by their developers before being cleaned up properly.
The old Discovery Mine site, seen here in 2004, is classified as a contaminated site. The gold mine, located about 80 km northeast of Yellowknife, was abandoned in 1969. Although the headframe and many other buildings in the abandoned village nearby were burned down or otherwise demolished in 2005, monitoring of the hazardous tailings and other contaminates in the area is ongoing. Tyhee Gold Corp. now leases much of the surrounding area, and its proposed Yellowknife Gold Project is currently working its way through the environmental assessment process. - NNSL file photo
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This is cause for concern according to some residents, including Alternatives North member Kevin O'Reilly.
"The GNWT needs to look very carefully at what it's going to inherit and make sure that if the liability on the ground is created by the federal government, then they should retain the responsibility and liability for that," said O'Reilly.
This is no small mess, with financial liability for development projects gone wrong totaling in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to clean up, he said.
Environmental legislation and regulations surrounding resource development projects have improved considerably since Giant Mine opened in 1948. However, there is still no legal requirement for operators to finance the cleanup of environmental disasters or follow through on closure plans, he added.
"It's all discretionary, not mandatory," O'Reilly said.
The GNWT's chief negotiator in the devolution process, Martin Goldney, who changed his title to executive director of devolution negotiations since formal negotiations wrapped up earlier this month, told Yellowknifer the GNWT is doing its due diligence and is ensuring it will be ready to assume responsibility of managing a majority share of the territory's lands.
A list of all abandoned sites in the territory that require clean-up is being put together by the federal government, which will retain responsibility for all listed waste sites after devolution.
"After the transfer date, we'll have a comprehensive inventory of the contaminated sites that are out there, and Canada will retain responsibility for those because those were created under Canada's watch," said Goldney. "For sites that are created after that, under the GNWT's watch, the GNWT is the land manager and they will have to take the responsibility if an operator is unable to meet their obligations."
Although the final tallies are not in, there is estimated to be about 76 such sites in the NWT, said Goldney.
"There will be a five-year period before the GNWT is automatically responsible for any future waste sites that might be created. This will allow the GNWT as the new land manager to do the due diligence and do the inspections required to find out where the areas of priority are," Goldney said.
New age of environmental review
There are currently seven mines going through the environmental assessment process which could come online before 2017. Two of these are gold mines, which historically have caused the most environmental damage.
"For the new gold mines and the new operations, those are going to be subject to modern environmental assessment and review practices. So, we don't think it's fair to think there might be another Giant Mine," Goldney told Yellowknifer, when asked what would protect territorial and aboriginal governments from being on the hook for another Giant Mine. "In the worst case scenario, and we don't expect them to be ever be at the scale of a Giant Mine again, but it will be up to the GNWT as the land manager after devolution to ensure that developers are complying with all the conditions that are there to mitigate those risks."
It is incorrect to assume that, just because the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act (MVRMA) will remain an act of parliament, Canada will retain control over approving new projects in the territory, he said. In fact, with the GNWT becoming the principal land manager in the territory, land and water board recommendations will be sent to territorial ministers more often than federal ministers for assessment and approval.
Although the federal government may retain the power to change the legislation of the MVRMA in Ottawa, appoint its share of board members and name board chairs, GNWT ministers will now have more say on whether to accept or reject the findings made by these boards – although the appropriate federal ministers will still have their say when developments are proposed on Crown lands or other areas of federal jurisdiction.
"What is staying federal is simply the legislative framework for environmental assessment and review," said Goldney. "We (the territory) will have more power after devolution.
Weledeh MLA Bob Bromley disagrees, saying that leaving control of the MVRMA in Ottawa ultimately means the federal government retains the power to approve new projects in the territory.
"We're stuck with what the environmental review decisions are," he told Yellowknifer, adding the real power over approving new projects lies with the governing body that appoints the most board members – which will remain Canada.
"At the same time as they are shortening the time frame for reviews, they're reducing the resources for the boards, and now they're transferring the responsibility (for clean-up) to the GNWT or the claims governments," said Bromley.
The federal government has cut funding to environmental assessment and review boards over the past two years to these boards have been hamstrung and are unable to keep up with their workload, he said.
"We're inheriting a broken system," said Bromley.
The GNWT will create mirror legislation for all relevant federal legislation while taking over management of lands and resources, said Goldney. A precedent for this was when the Yukon had its own devolution of lands and resources, and also when Nunavut separated from the NWT.
While the territory may not be taking over the MVRMA, it will be the governing body that ensures all developers put proper collateral on the line to ensure clean up once they are done extracting their desired resource, and it will be the GNWT that will send inspectors to those sites to ensure everything is being done properly, he said.
"We do think that we're going to have more resources and we're certainly a more accessible and accountable government," said Goldney. "I think we will have a greater ability and incentive to do inspections as required."
