Yellowknife council votes to force Giant Mine cleanup review

Cleanup plans for the defunct Giant Mine will undergo an environmental assessment after all, on the orders of Yellowknife city council.

Councillors voted Tuesday to force an assessment, even though the Mackenzie Land and Water Boarddecided last month to approve the federal government's $300-million mine remediation plan without the need for one.

In making its decision, the board had said holding an environmental assessment would further delay cleanup work that must be done now on the toxic mine site.

Councillors agreed there is enough public concern to warrant further scrutiny of the plan, which involves filling in waste tailings ponds, removing decrepit buildings and freezing 273,000 tonnes of poisonous arsenic trioxide dust currently stored underground.

"I don't think that in a thousand or even a hundred years, it's going to matter whether we start this a year or two later," Coun. Paul Falvo said at Tuesday night's council meeting.

"We owe it to our citizens to take the time to do this right."

The environmental assessment is expected to take up to three years.

The Giant Mine produced more than seven million ounces of gold from 1948 until 1999. The federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department is now responsible for cleaning up the leftover contamination and monitoring the site.

The city's request for an assessment would normally trigger one automatically, had it asked for one when the land and water board was deciding whether to do so.

But the city had thought other agencies with the authority to trigger a review would do so, reacting with shock when no one came forward.

Dozens of people packed council chambers, many of whom called for the city to order the assessment.

"They're trying to force us to say, 'Hurry up and clean it up,'" Chief Edward Sangris of the Yellowknives Dene said.

"But it took them 71 years to contaminate it. Did we say, 'Hurry up, we're worried about contamination?'"

Councillors said they are concerned with the lack of an independent agency to monitor the federal department's cleanup work. They also said the remediation plan must take into account the city's plans to build on the site eventually.

Kevin O'Reilly, an environmental activist and former city councillor, said the city has to be prepared if anything goes wrong and the city is left on the hook financially.

"The city needs to start to stand up for itself as a corporation and the residents of this community," O'Reilly told councillors.

"You need to get some professional and technical legal assistance when it comes to mine closure," he added. "You do this whenever there's a rate application for the Public Utilities Board, and you should be doing this to protect your rights and interests when it comes to mine reclamation."