Nunavut mayor 'improperly' endorsed Baffinland mine expansion, says Pond Inlet councillor

A municipal councillor in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, is accusing the hamlet's mayor of bypassing council to push for a controversial mine expansion.

In a letter to Canada's northern affairs minister, Pond Inlet Coun. Boazie Ootoova says Mayor Joshua Arreak violated municipal rules by "improperly" endorsing the Baffinland Iron Mines project without council's approval.

Baffinland, which operates the Mary River iron ore mine on north Baffin Island, is proposing to double production at the mine and build a railway from the mine site to its port facility. Pond Inlet is the nearest community and dozens of local residents work at the mine.

On Friday, the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) issued its long-awaited recommendation on the expansion project, and it decided that it should not go ahead. 

That's despite a letter received by the NIRB in January from Arreak, to be entered as Pond Inlet's final submission to the review process. That letter urged the approval of Baffinland's expansion, citing the jobs and financial benefits that the mine provides to Inuit in Pond Inlet. 

Ootoova, however, says Arreak's letter was written without council's approval, and that it contradicts other hamlet resolutions that opposed the Baffinland expansion. It gives the "false impression" that Pond Inlet supports the project, and Ootoova felt it was his duty to report that, he wrote to the federal minister. 

"There is no record of this letter in the minutes from hamlet council meetings and council members have confirmed that they were not aware of this letter before it was filed with the NIRB," Ootoova wrote.

"This letter should be removed from the NIRB registry and should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Baffinland's Phase 2 application by the Hamlet of Pond Inlet."

Ootoova also suggests that Arreak's letter to NIRB "closely resembles" a presentation made by Baffinland executives a few months earlier to Pond Inlet council. 

"There was no resolution endorsing their position or the points they raised in their presentation to Council," Ootoova wrote.

Arreak's letter to the NIRB describes how Pond Inlet has already benefited from the mine, how the expansion project will mean more jobs and benefits, and how Inuit have been promised more input and control over the development.

The company has also suggested that the mine may be effectively shut down if the expansion is not approved. 

"This mine must stay open," reads Arreak's submission to the NIRB. 

"Pond Inlet will not be able to replace the lost jobs to the residents of Pond Inlet, nor will it replace the economic benefits should this mine close."