YELLOWKNIFE — Environmental advocates say costly cleanups of former non\u002Drenewable resource projects in the North show the need for better planning.
Three of Canada’s top five most expensive federal contaminated sites are abandoned mines in the North: Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories at an estimated $4.38 billion and the Faro and United Keno Hill mines in Yukon at $1 billion and $125 million, respectively.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Yukon’s 2021-2022 public accounts include an estimated $94.6 million to remediate 100 sites. The two most expensive are Wolverine Mine at $39 million and the Wellgreen mill and tailings site at an estimated $15.5 million. The Yukon government successfully petitioned to put Yukon Zinc Corp. into receivership in 2019, but the court-appointed receiver was unable to find a viable buyer.
Responsibility for the site transferred to the territory during devolution in 2003. The Yukon government said it’s discussing a cost-sharing agreement with the federal government.Article content The territory said, however, liabilities include sites where it has not accepted full responsibility. It said the two most expensive ones where the territory has accepted responsibility are a former power plant and tank farm, and the former Icicle Inn in Sachs Harbour.
Audit director Kelsey Hogg said during a review of the N.W.T.’s latest public accounts in December, environmental liabilities had increased by $20 million largely due to the territory’s accrual of Cameron Hills.“I’d much rather spend that money on housing, health care or education than cleaning up contaminated sites that should have been prevented or we shouldn’t have accepted in the first place” he said.
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