NIRB nixes delay of Kiggavik uranium review

The Nunavut Impact Review Board has said no to a Nunavut-based uranium-skeptic group called Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit, who wanted the board to delay public hearings on the proposed Kiggavik uranium mine until after the Government of Nunavut produces a formal policy on uranium mining.

The Makitagunarningit group asked for the delay after Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak said this past August that the GN will hold a public forum on uranium mining in the territory and then said on CBC radio that the GN will eventually develop a uranium policy.

The group told the board that, in their opinion, the GN can’t participate “meaningfully” in the public hearings on Kiggavik if they don’t have a policy.

But in a letter, dated Oct. 5, addressed to Makitagunarningit members Sandra Inutiq and Joan Scottie, the board set out their reasons for rejecting the request.

The biggest of those reasons is that, under Article 12 of the Nunavut land claims agreement, the board does not have the legal jurisdiction to suspend its review of the Kiggavik process simply because the GN lacks a uranium policy.

“As set out in the NLCA, the NIRB is responsible for making only project-specific screening and review recommendations to the Minister and is not required to await the development of general regional policy before conducting a project-specific review,” the board said in its letter.

The board also said it doesn’t know when or how the GN will ever develop such a policy and “cannot justify delaying the Kiggavik review for an undefined period of time for an indeterminate result.”