Toxic Yellowknife mine cleanup moves ahead with community changes

YELLOWKNIFE – Plans to clean up what may be Canada’s worst toxic site are moving ahead with changes suggested by those who live beside Yellowknife’s arsenic-infested Giant Mine.

Last summer, a northern environmental regulator told the federal cabinet that it wasn’t entirely happy with Ottawa’s plans for the mine, which holds millions of tonnes of arsenic-contaminated waste right on the shores of Great Slave Lake.

The regulator agreed freezing the underground arsenic in place was probably the best solution at the present time.

But it recommended an independent watchdog be created to supervise the dangerous cleanup, and that ongoing research be funded to find a permanent way to deal with the former gold mine’s deadly legacy.

Those suggestions have survived into the final draft of the board’s report and will now go before Northern Development Minister Bernard Valcourt for his approval.

The Giant Mine cleanup is expected to cost nearly a billion dollars, all of which will be paid by taxpayers.