Review board postpones hearing into pipeline construction near Rankin Inlet
Agnico Eagle’s public hearing was originally scheduled for mid-May
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the territory, the Nunavut Impact Review Board has postponed a public hearing into Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.’s plan to send saline groundwater from the Meliadine mine to Melvin Bay through a pair of pipelines. (Photo courtesy of Agnico Eagle)
The Nunavut Impact Review Board has indefinitely postponed a public hearing on Agnico Eagle’s plan to build two water pipelines north of Rankin Inlet.
The company wants to build a pair of 34-kilometre pipelines from its Meliadine mine to Melvin Bay, located in Hudson Bay, to dispose of saline groundwater from the underground mine. The company is currently trucking this water to the bay.
The hearing was originally scheduled for May 17 to 20 in Rankin Inlet, according to a letter issued by the board.
In the letter, board chairperson Marjorie Kaviq Kaluraq said the health restrictions throughout the territory “would limit the full and effective participation of community members in the public hearing.”
Kaluraq wrote that the board has not set a date for the hearing to take place, but would let participants know when it can.
As of Thursday, Rankin Inlet has two active cases of COVID-19, Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq said on Twitter.
The review board also recently cancelled an ongoing hearing into Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s proposal to expand its Mary River mine, in light of the discovery of COVID-19 in Iqaluit, where the hearing was happening. Participants have since been sent home.
Congrats NIRB on finding a valid reason to postpone hearings. I’m sure it’s been difficult trying to indefinitely stall every project that has any kind of opposition to it. Luckily, the projects only have to be stalled until the investors get scared off by the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get a recommendation or a condemnation from the board. Stall tactics make it extremely difficult to invest in Nunavut but I’m happy to see this isn’t one.