Feds 'passing the buck' on Giant Mine contamination, says chief

A familiar Canadian tune played at a community meeting dedicated to the Giant Mine Project: a community fearing contamination, complaints of interjurisdictional football over who is responsible and questions left unanswered.

The Yellowknives Dene have demanded an apology and compensation for the losses incurred from the mine’s arsenic trioxide contamination – including lost hunting and gathering spaces, illness in the community and ongoing contamination.

When Royal Oak Mines declared bankruptcy in 1999, the federal government assumed responsibility for the mine, but two decades later has made no apology nor commitment to compensate YKDFN members.

In recent weeks, YKDFN Chief Ernest Betsina made calls for signage and clear answers on the extent of arsenic trioxide “hotspots” in Ndilo.

“It's right next door to our playground or our school yard and that doesn't feel very comfortable to me and the safety of the kids that are down there,” he said at a recent public meeting.

“How contaminated is it? Will somebody tell me that? And will somebody tell my people how much there is contaminated?”

Indigenous and Northern Affairs regional director Matt Spence is working on contamination issues, said Natalie Plato, the remediation project’s deputy director.

“I’m sorry that I can’t answer your question,” she told Betsina, adding it falls outside the remediation project’s mandate and scope.

Giant Mine Oversight Board executive director Kathleen Racher agreed Betsina was not receiving suitable answers.
“(Spence) is not here, so chief, we're not giving you very much satisfaction tonight and I know that,” she said. “It's a bit outside of our mandate but I don't want to be the person who just passes the buck, so that's very challenging,” said Racher.

Betsina sought further answers about accountability.

“Speaking about passing the buck, the federal government when we talk to them, they say ‘Well it’s the GNWT's responsibility’ and when we call they GNWT they say ‘its a federal responsibility.’ I would like publicly to say that somebody take responsibility, whether it be the federal government or the territorial government,” said Betsina.

“(Contamination) is not going to go away. In the meantime, maybe some of our members or some of the kids could be getting sick,” he said.

According to the oversight board's recent report, research and published studies indicate high levels of arsenic in soil on Latham Island and Ndilo.

A recent outside media investigation found that toxic levels of arsenic reach three times industrial land use standards – levels significant enough to cause long-term health effects.

The oversight board suggests that “hotspots” of contaminated soil on Latham Island and N’dilo be subject to comprehensive soil testing and a full clean up. It also recommends traditional knowledge studies be integrated into the remediation.

Elder Muriel Betsina has been outspoken for many years about the wake of destruction left by poorly regulated mining activities spoke to the audience for more than 40 minutes, to remind people of the way Yellowknives Dene lives before and after the mine.

The destruction of Giant is part of a larger history of colonization, said Betsina.

“All the dust from pollution, from arsenic. The children used to get sores. Nobody knew anything about it. All their lives they lived in the bush. The lived a good life, as trappers and hunters,” she said.

“Nobody says ‘hey, we've done something wrong here. Let's start helping our Indigenous people’,” she said. “Today I'm standing up. I have cancer too.”

Mining will proliferate, despite the government of the day and enacted legislation, she said.

“The federal government doesn’t see us. Only our nations’ governments know what we go through,” she said.
“Take the message back to Ottawa,” said Betsina. “The people are asking for something that they never got in their lifetime: compensation from the Giant Mine.”

Chief Ernest Betsina said that decades ago, an YKDFN member died of arsenic trioxide poisoning. That death is independently confirmed in a letter between the mine's manager and the director of the department of resources and development. The letter, held in Library and Archives Canada, says the mine paid $750 to a family for the death of their child.

Meanwhile, as the Giant Mine Remediation Project approaches its beginning stages, Yellowknives Dene and the oversight board say the project needs a temporary water license.

Joanne Black, who is the YKDFN’s director of lands management, argues that the project is putting off its formal water license to avoid triggering traditional knowledge studies.

Without a water license, Yellowknives Dene won't have a voice in the planning stages and the license could be submitted without TK, said Black.

Project lead Plato said the project team is adhering to its early-2019 timeline for seeking regulatory approvals from the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.

In the meantime, the mine is governed by federal regulations under the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations and the Fisheries Act.

In an email, water board executive director Shelagh Montgomery wrote that the board is aware of GMOB’s recommendations for a temporary license.

The water board, however, does not have the authority to compel the project to apply for a license. Compliance falls to federal and territorial inspectors, she said.

The water board is anticipating the 2019 application for a water licence, which will be subject to a mandatory public hearing. The water board has up to nine months to issue a decision on a water license, said Montgomery.

That means the project could be operating without a water-board issued license for 15 more months.

The first nation is “bogged down” with communicating with the feds and the Giant Mine file, said Black.

“Yellowknives got nothing from that site. All they got was death, destruction. In terms of planning for socioeconomics, include us, because it'd be sad when the project is long gone and still we're struggling.”