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Urgent Giant Mine underground work yet to begin Government couldn't find contractor in time, resort to emergency sole-sourced contract
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 2, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Contractors will need to work quickly to finish stabilizing underground chambers at the Giant Mine remediation project before winter arrives, according to the remediation team.
Ben Nordahn, mine systems officer with the Giant Mine Remediation Project, underground at the mine site. Work is urgently required to stabilize some arsenic-filled underground sections of Giant Mine before this fall. - photo courtesy of Dave Brosha/AANDC photo
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Adrian Paradis, regulatory manager for the remediation project, said engineers saw issues with the arsenic-trioxide-filled underground portions of the mine last fall while doing drilling and analysis. They determined emergency work was needed to stabilize the mine before spring 2014.
A tender was issued for the job in April by Public Works and Government Services Canada, but the government wasn't able to procure a construction manager in time.
A G Clark Holdings was awarded an emergency sole-sourced contract valued at up to $9 million because, according to a Giant Mine Procurement Outlook published on July 26th, they were the only ones on site who would be able to start the work in time.
The procurement outlook states the work is "urgently required to protect the health and safety of the public, the mine workers and the environment." It notes the underground instability at the mine creates a potential for flooding during the spring freshet in 2014.
If water from nearby Baker Creek made it into one of the underground, arsenic filled areas, the poison could seep into the creek and eventually flow out to Great Slave Lake, according to an Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) water licence application from December 2012.
Kevin O'Reilly, with the social justice group Alternatives North, said he's looking for an explanation for the delay in the work.
"We think this is good work that has to be done," he said, "but we're not sure why it was left to the last possible moment to do it."
O'Reilly said he's been struggling to get more information from AANDC about their schedule, and if they'll even be able to complete the underground work before freeze-up.
"It's not clear what work is going to get done this season," he said.
The issue, O'Reilly said, is poor communication from the project managers.
"Give us a revised schedule and tell us what you're going to get done this season," O'Reilly said.
Paradis couldn't say exactly when the stabilization work would begin, but said they're still on schedule.
"It'll be a hectic pace, it's been urgent. We're getting the proper information in place to do work with the contractors," Paradis said.
Paradis said the underground work is scheduled to take place over two years, with the highest-risk areas being completed this summer.
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