Iqaluit PCB incinerator project doused by DND contract award

MICHAELA RODRIGUE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — The flame has gone out of a proposal to bring a PCB incinerator to Iqaluit.

The plan, which promised local jobs but worried environmentalists was snuffed out two weeks ago, when the company proposing the incinerator lost a key government contract.

The Department of National Defence awarded Ottawa-based GPEC International Ltd. a $15-million contract to clean-up contaminants in Saglek, Labrador, a government official confirmed. GPEC beat out five other bidders, including Cintec-Tredi, who proposed building the Iqaluit incinerator.

Instead GPEC will clean up the debris on site.

Having lost the contract, Cintec-Tredi spokesperson Philippe Guerin, said the company’s proposal to bring a PCB incinerator to Nunavut’s capital is all but dead.

“The contract has been awarded,” Guerin said.

Cintec-Tredi’s bid was about $50 million and it now wants to attend a meeting with government officials to learn more about the decision to go with GPEC.

Proponents of the project said a PCB incinerator would have added fifty or more jobs to the local economy and could have cleaned up contaminates in other parts of the North.

But some local residents said the risk of environmental damage outweighs the possible economic gain, and were happy to hear the project didn’t get the go ahead.

“That’s great. I had a lot of concerns about whether they could incinerate PCBs properly,” said Paul Crowley, an Iqaluit resident.

“I’m glad, I hope the proper arrangements get made down South,” he said.

“I don’t want to see any PCBs from Labrador or Newfoundland brought all the way up to Baffin Island,” echoed Pitseolak Alainga, chair of the Amarok Hunters & Trappers Association.

“Marine mammals are one of our best animals around here and if it started to leak, that’s where it would go,” Alainga said.

But Cintec-Tredi’s loss could also mean a loss for Qikiqtaaluk Corp.

Cintec-Tredi planned to form a new company, owned jointly by the Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics. (PAIL) Through PAIL, the four Inuit birthright development corporations would each have had a stake in the contract.

Qikiqtaaluk also planned to conduct public relations on behalf of the project.

“That scrubs that opportunity with Cintec,” said QC president Jerry Ell, when he was told of the decision.

“I’m very sure PAIL will look at other options,” he said. Ell was unsure if QC had contacted the contract winner GPEC.

But Ell said with the amount of waste in Nunavut, QC and other Inuit companies still hope to tap into the cleanup industry.

Ell could not say how much of a financial impact the failed partnership with Cintec would have created.

“It’s hard to miss if you never had it in the first place. Certainly there would have been business opportunities and opportunities for revenue. It’s hard to put a dollar figure on that,” he said. Ell said jobs such as heavy equipment operator, pollution monitoring and management level jobs, could have been available to beneficiaries.

Who GPEC will hire to work on the cleanup is unknown.

GPEC officials were travelling to Labrador and could not be reached by Nunatsiaq News press time.

GPEC’s proposal must still undergo environmental assessment and community consultation. This year the company will set up living quarters and equipment in Saglek. Clean up is expected to begin next summer and finish by the end of October 2002.