SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The estimated cost for cleaning up Giant Mine is currently $903 million - a cost that is likely to increase in the future - an Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada spokesperson has confirmed.
"As of today, that is our estimate," Joanna Ankersmit, director of the department's Northern contaminated sites program, told Yellowknifer on Friday.
This figure had been widely reported since the results of an access-to-information request was made public by Yellowknife-based public policy group Alternatives North more than three weeks ago. Kevin O'Reilly, spokesperson for the grassroots organization, said the document obtained through the request, which was dated Sept. 1, 2012, shows the federal department knew the overall costs had ballooned and covered this up during public hearings for the project's environmental assessment last September.
The document also shows the $903-million figure was approved by the National Treasury Board in March 2012, six months before the federal government presented its $449-million cost estimate to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board during the public hearings.
"If we hadn't filed that access-to-information request and we hadn't made that publicly available to people, we still wouldn't know what the cost of the total remediation for the site would be," said O'Reilly.
"There has obviously been a failure to communicate clearly and consistently and accurately. This is only one small example of the ongoing miscommunications, a lack of effort to truly engage and involve the community in the development of the remediation plan, let alone carrying it out."
However, Ankersmit denies she or anyone else in her department hid the true costs of the cleanup.
"In no way are we in any way trying to keep things hidden from the public," she said. "The numbers have been released at various times if people have asked for them. ... It's an order of magnitude number so every time that it changes slightly, that isn't something that we would feel the need to come out with."
A project of such a large scale can be expected to change over the years and this likely isn't the last time the price tag for cleaning up Giant Mine will be adjusted, she added.
"We're committed to making sure that Parliament and Canadians are kept aware of that," she said.
The $449-million figure is the estimated cost to complete the remediation plan once the project is given the go-ahead by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board and obtains the necessary water licences, which Ankersmit expects could take two years in a best-case scenario. However, the department is currently budgeting for maintaining the site for five more years before the final clean-up plan can be implemented.
O'Reilly said it was Ottawa that caused the environmental assessment process to drag on by not providing information to the board in a timely manner. In the five years the project has been before the review board, Alternatives North has calculated that two years have been spent waiting for responses and information from the federal department, he said.
From the 2012/13 fiscal year to the date of implementation, the federal government is expecting to spend $260 million. Included in that cost is demolishing the roaster complex and stabilizing underground chambers, which are two projects the federal government applied to the review board in December for special permission to move forward with, citing "the potentially catastrophic consequences of a collapse of any portion of the roaster complex or the underground workings of the mine."
"The site, as you know, has been deteriorating over time and so we have to manage parallel processes - we have real risks before us that need to be managed," said Ankersmit.
"And so, we're moving ahead some items because it's important to implement that work sooner rather than later to keep up with the protection of human health and safety as well as the environment."
From the time the feds took over the Giant Mine site in 1999 to April 31, 2012, $160 million in taxpayer money has been spent on maintaining the site, including pumping and treating arsenic-laden water, said Ankersmit.
Also $25 million to $30 million has been spent on a freeze optimization study in recent years, and the hope is that study will allow the department to save money on freezing the 14 underground chambers at Giant Mine filled with 237,000 tonnes of arsenic dust.
"It's a very expensive site to keep safe," said Ankersmit.
The department did not expect such a lengthy regulatory process before the remediation plan could be implemented, she said.
The department has spent "a significant amount of effort" responding to about 400 information requests during the regulatory process.
The federal government is expecting to pay $34 million in GST, bringing the total estimated cost to $903 million.
Canadian taxpayers can expect this number to change by the time cleanup is completed, said Ankersmit.
"In a complex project like the Giant Mine, its duration is a couple of decades. It's a site that will have ongoing costs, as far as we know, in perpetuity. So, you can imagine that there is some difficulty in terms of putting a strict number on what that's going to cost," she said.
Currently, it costs about $10 million per year to maintain the site, and once cleanup is complete the arsenic must remain frozen in perpetuity, which is expected to cost about $1.9 million per year to maintain in today's dollars.
Current cost estimates for Giant mine cleanup
$903 million: Total expected cost.
$160 million: Federal funds spent up to March 31, 2012.
$260 million: Ongoing costs between April 1, 2012, and implementation of the remediation plan (budgeted for five years). Includes cost of eight contracts expected to be awarded this year (including roaster deconstruction awarded to Parsons Canada Ltd. on March 12 - $25.7 million; care and maintenance contract to Nuna Logistics and the Det'on Cho Corporation on March 15 - $9.7 million; construction management contract to Clark Holdings on Feb. 6 - $7.7 million).
$449 million: Estimated cost for implementing the remediation plan (includes $148.16 million for freezing systems; $52.78 million for tailings and sludge ponds; and $18.13 million for re-routing Baker Creek).
$34 million: Government sales tax
Source: Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, public documents for Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board environmental assessment on Giant Mine Remediation Project
