Canada is 'missing the mark' on remediation and reconciliation, says Yellowknives Dene chief

A chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation says an auditor's report about contaminated sites shows Canada is "missing the mark" when it comes to remediation and reconciliation in the North. 

It's one perspective northerners are sharing after the federal environmental watchdog released a report Tuesday that scrutinizes how Ottawa has managed contaminated sites in the North. A Yukon mining analyst has also agreed with its finding that longer-term plans are needed for some of the North's big, abandoned mines.

The audit looked at Faro Mine in the Yukon and Giant Mine in the N.W.T. as examples of how the federal government has managed more than 2,600 contaminated sites across the North and more than 24,000 sites across Canada — more than 18,000 of which have been closed.

The report also says the federal government has not done enough to include Indigenous peoples in the management or cleanup of old mines, airports, military sites and landfills across the country — a finding supported by the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and its two chiefs in the N.W.T.

In a statement, the First Nation said the Giant, Con and Negus mines were all located on its core harvesting area and were imposed without the community's consent. While Canada and the companies benefited from the operations, the Yellowknives Dene said they suffered harm to their land, water, resources, culture and health. 

Giant Mine operated from 1948 to 2004 under various owners. In that time, it produced about 198 tonnes of gold and more than 237,000 tonnes of highly toxic arsenic trioxide dust, which is contained underground. 

"Canada must do better to remediate contaminated sites in a way that advances reconciliation with Indigenous peoples rather than furthering harm," the Yellowknives Dene statement reads. 

Dettah Chief Ernest Betsina wrote that the audit is a "call to action" for the federal government to "do things in a better way and to rectify the harms that contaminated sites caused to our people." 

The audit found Yukon's Faro Mine had exceeded targets for training women, northern and Indigenous people in the pre-remediation phase, but that similar targets for Giant's remediation had not been met. 

In an interview with CBC News, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal said more than 80 per cent of subcontracts at Giant had gone to Northern Indigenous companies. He also cited a recent agreement between Ottawa and the Yellowknives Dene that maps out procurement goals.

"We have a very important community benefits agreement with the Yellowknives Dene First Nations, we're trying to make sure that the economic benefits and the social benefits [of] the remediation economy benefits Yellowknives [Dene]," said Vandal. 

Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Stephen Guilbeault said in a statement that government programs to address contamination have been an important source of employment for many Indigenous communities in the North, and that the federal government would continue to build on those efforts. 

A mining analyst with the Yukon Conservation Society agrees with the report's finding that the federal government needs to finish perpetual care plans for remediation at both the Giant and Faro mine sites. 

"Perpetual care plans, they're a bit tenuous because you know, we're talking forever," said Lewis Rifkind. "But because we all know that this site [Faro] will never truly be cleaned up, it's something we should be thinking about very early on."