After an annual public meeting at Northern United Place last week, it's still unclear how local workers and companies will benefit from the $1 billion clean up of Giant Mine.
The Giant Mine Oversight Board's (GMOB) says very little of the remediation projectSA国际影视传媒檚 economic potential is being realized, especially for Northern and Indigenous workers.
In 2017-2018, the Giant Mine Remediation Project team spent over $36 million. However, only 20 per cent of the project's employees and contractors were Northern and just four per cent were Indigenous, states the report.
This employment trend will continue unless the project team changes its approach and starts looking at barriers that prevent Northerners and Indigenous people from accessing jobs and contracts.
SA国际影视传媒淲e want to see a comprehensive and logical socio-economic and human well-being strategy,SA国际影视传媒� states the report, including measurable performance targets.
Resident Chris Taff spoke at the meeting and compared the training of workers for Giant Mine remediation jobs to his own training in the military.
SA国际影视传媒淲hen they hired me at eighteen, I was just potential,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
SA国际影视传媒淎nd so when I look at this community thereSA国际影视传媒檚 a lot of potential.SA国际影视传媒�
Taff said he was a SA国际影视传媒渓ittle disturbedSA国际影视传媒� to hear about the low participation rate of Northerners, especially Indigenous people.
SA国际影视传媒淭his is a ten-year project,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淵ou can, in ten years, develop pretty much whatever level you want out of people. So I think thereSA国际影视传媒檚 an opportunity here.SA国际影视传媒�
Paul Betsina, business development manager at DetSA国际影视传媒檕n Cho Corporation and a councillor with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN), emphasized the need for communication between the board and local companies.
SA国际影视传媒淩ight now we need a communication protocol from GMOB,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淵ou guys need to develop something and stop hiding behind this bubble or shell that youSA国际影视传媒檙e in.SA国际影视传媒�
He also noted the mine site is only accessible to those with vehicles, leaving many young people stuck in a SA国际影视传媒渧icious cycleSA国际影视传媒� of low employment.
The subject of a federal apology and compensation for those impacted by the mineSA国际影视传媒檚 operation arose more than once.
Giant Mine opened in 1948 and produced incredible amounts of highly lethal arsenic trioxide, of which 237,000 tonnes are stored on-site. The federal government has agreed to clean the site, which will create hundreds of jobs.
The government's plan is to seal the arsenic in underground vaults and keep it frozen using thermosyphons, which are pumps that suck heat from the earth.
The Yellowknives Dene have asked the federal government for an apology and compensation for damages and losses related to Giant Mine environmental contamination, but they have not received one.
SA国际影视传媒淲e recommend the federal government immediately respond to the YKDFN requests for an apology and compensation for the historic operations at the Giant Mine,SA国际影视传媒� states the report.
SA国际影视传媒淲e continue to make (the recommendation), not because thereSA国际影视传媒檚 not progress on it but because itSA国际影视传媒檚 vitally important,SA国际影视传媒� said GMOB member Kathleen Racher.
SA国际影视传媒淪till many of the meetings that we attend about the project come back to this issue of reconciliation about the legacy of Giant Mine.SA国际影视传媒�
New drinking water pipeline
Yellowknifer Mike Byrne encouraged the city to SA国际影视传媒渇ight harderSA国际影视传媒� for federal funding to replace the drinking water pipeline that runs from the Yellowknife River across the bay to the community's water treatment plant.
SA国际影视传媒淎s a protection measure in the event that all of this work out at Giant fails and we have a mess in the bay, more than we already do,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
Byrne gave kudos to the city for not giving up in their attempts to get full funding for the project.
SA国际影视传媒淭heySA国际影视传媒檝e been partially successful and should continue to seek one hundred per cent federal funding for that safety measure,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
SA国际影视传媒淚t was the government of Canada who collected the royalties from the gold produced, they should pay for that.SA国际影视传媒�
The YKDFN has also been pushing for a new water line.
SA国际影视传媒淲e want to make sure that the water is clean, not just for the city of Yellowknife but for the Yellowknives Dene as well, who have lived on this land for many years,SA国际影视传媒� said Jason Snaggs, CEO of the YKDFN.
Snaggs emphasized the need for a permanent solution to the arsenic problem for future generations.
SA国际影视传媒淲e see this block frozen method of more or less keeping the arsenic trioxide at bay, as being a temporary solution,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
Oversight board member David Livingstone said the plan to freeze the arsenic is, at best, a temporary solution.
SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檓 optimistic that within a couple of decades we will have a solution to this problem,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
SA国际影视传媒淚 think we will be able to identify a means of rendering that arsenic trioxide non-toxic or isolated in a way that does provide indeterminate protection.SA国际影视传媒�
