Photo: A review of Nuvavut’s review board

Is the Nunavut Impact Review Board effectively monitoring projects? That was the theme of an early-morning consultation session on the Nunavut Mining Symposium’s final day in Iqaluit, April 6. Representatives from mining companies and Inuit organizations talked about the fine line between responsible land stewardship and the streamlining of site monitoring, which some companies say is producing annual reports in the thousands of pages, which costing millions of dollars to compile and which are rarely read outside of NIRB. “A 7,000-page annual report is not an annual report its an [environmental impact survey],” said TMAC Resources environmental affairs vice-president, John Roberts. “I struggle with the manner of review… its not clear to me that its very effective in insuring that we’re progressing.” But the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s director of land, environment and planning, Geoff Clark, said companies still need to face real consequences if they fall behind in their reporting. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)