Inuit voices lacking at TMAC’s Nunavut Water Board hearings

Nunavut Water Board members, Ross Mrazek, chairman Thomas Kabloona and Makabe Nartok, respond to presentations made at the NWB hearings held Sept. 13 and Sept. 14 in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

INAC and TMAC officials huddle to settle unresolved issues during the water board hearings held in Cambridge Bay’s Luke Novoligak community centre. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Maps showing TMAC’s Doris North gold mine project, in English, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, were on display during the water board hearing. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY—Under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, Nunavut’s regulatory boards are intended to guide resource development in Nunavut and keep that control in the hands of Nunavummiut.

But that wasn’t the take-away for observers at a recent water license hearing of the Nunavut Water Board held Sept. 13 and Sept. 14 in Cambridge Bay’s Luke Novoligak community centre.

The NWB hearing and special evening consultation for the public drew almost zero interest from elders or other Cambridge Bay residents who had been asked to provide input.

And the hearing wrapped up Sept. 14 with the mining company and the federal government making their own joint positive recommendation, saying the NWB should approve the request by TMAC Resources Inc. for its Doris North project.

Harry Maksagak of Cambridge Bay watched the discussions on the water licence amendment request—which touched on mining company’s plans to mine more over a longer period, discharge more water and tailings and enlarge its camp from 180 to 280—with interest.

What struck Maksagak was how much hadn’t been worked out before the board hearing—important issues to protect the land and the wildlife and get the mine moving into production, he said.

Maksagak also noted how TMAC and officials from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada seemed to be calling the shots, by asking for numerous delays during the board meeting to work out their differences and then requesting to file new documents.

The overall impression: “Now they’re telling you what they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it.”

Another observer watching the huddles of mining company and federal officials said these side-talks held during the recesses at the hearing and after-hours leave NWB members sitting, “like pigeons” wondering what’s going on.

By aiming for consensus among themselves, the two groups undermined the quasi-judicial role of the board because they took away the board’s right to make decisions, defeating the purpose of the board under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, Nunatsiaq News heard.

The last-minute filing of documents—which included suggestions of changes from TMAC to the license’s final wording—means the NWB, which must get their license recommendation out within 45 days, has to spend more time going over the papers, without TMAC or government officials present for clarification.

Agreement had been mostly reached on issues such as water quality, tailings, mitigation, water treatment and management policies before the two-day hearing.

But the big issue on which there was no agreement prior to the hearing was how much TMAC will have to put down as a reclamation guarantee for the closure of the Doris North mine.

Previously they earmarked about $13 million for its closure but the planned expansion of operations meant more money would have to be put aside. At the start of the water board hearing, TMAC and INAC were still roughly $7.5 million apart in their estimates.

Two hours before the meeting ended they agreed on a figure of more than $30 million.

But some suggested to Nunatsiaq News that the two parties should have met before coming to Cambridge Bay to discuss their unresolved issues because this will now prolong and complicate the regulatory board’s work.

Yet the same last-minute shake-ups also took place in Cambridge Bay last April when, during the last 20 minutes of the six-day hearings into the Sabina Gold and Silver mining project, various documents got filed.

On April 30, the final day of that Sabina public hearing, the Government of Nunavut and the KIA each made joint submissions to the review board that suggested revamped terms and conditions aimed at improving the company’s proposed environmental protection measures, especially for caribou.

Those joint submissions flowed from negotiations between GN, KIA and Sabina that took place after the public hearing had begun.

Recently, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association said the NIRB may not have had time to air out those new proposals. That’s one reason they now want INAC Minister Carolyn Bennett to hand the Sabina proposal back to the review board.

So far, the regulatory process has been smoother for TMAC.

Following a three-day public hearing held this past April in Cambridge Bay, the Nunavut Impact Review Board said yes to TMAC’s requests and Bennett backed NIRB recommendations that Doris North’s 2006 project certificate be amended.

The NWB meeting on TMAC marks a big regulatory step for the gold mining project before the water board recommendation on the project goes back to the minister for approval.

Speaking Sept. 14, John Roberts, TMAC’s vice president of environmental affairs, called the consensus reached by parties at the water board meeting “a profound milestone.”

The mining company, whose activities have the backing of the KIA, hopes to pour its first gold bar in 2017.