Nunavut Impact Review Board rejects proposed Baffinland expansion

The Nunavut Influence Evaluate board has beneficial Baffinland’s Part 2 enlargement not be allowed to proceed.

In a letter to Dan Vandal, the federal northern affairs minister, Nunavut Influence Evaluate Board chair Kaviq Kaluraq stated the mine has the potential for “important opposed ecosystemic results” on marine mammals, fish, caribou and different wildlife, which in flip might hurt Inuit tradition, land use and meals safety. 

Kaluraq’s letter additionally pointed to the potential for “transboundary results on marine mammals and fish and the marine atmosphere exterior of the Nunavut Settlement Space.”

Lastly, she famous these results “can’t be adequately prevented, mitigated or adaptively managed,” even with the proporsed revisions to the challenge certificated the board has already issued to Baffinland. 

The long-awaited suggestion was launched on Friday, after a four-year overview course of that pitted financial growth in opposition to environmental protections and the sustainability of conventional searching. The total report is 441 pages.

Baffinland, the Qikiqtani Inuit Affiliation and the federal government of Nunavut all declined interviews till they’ll overview the report.

In a information launch, Baffinland CEO Brian Penney stated the corporate was dissatisfied with the choice.

“Our Part 2 proposal relies on years of in-depth examine and detailed scientific evaluation, and has appreciable native help based mostly on years of session with Inuit and native communities,” Penney stated.

“We might be asking the federal authorities to think about the entire proof and enter and to approve the Part 2 utility with truthful and affordable circumstances.”

The choice finally rests with Vandal, who has beforehand stated he’ll make a decision inside 90 days of NIRB’s suggestion.

In 2016, when the identical board beneficial a gold mine in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot area not be allowed to go forward, then-federal minister Carolyn Bennett rejected that suggestion, asking NIRB to offer the challenge a second likelihood. 

That mine was given approval the next yr. 

The Mary River mine has been working on north Baffin Island since 2015 and is at the moment allowed to extract and ship as much as six million tonnes of ore per yr.

Baffinland had requested to double its transport of iron ore from its Milne Inlet port to 12 million tonnes a yr, and construct a 110-kilometre railway to the port.

WATCH | Inuit on Baffin Island might determine destiny of far north iron ore mine:

Inuit on Baffin Island might determine destiny of far north iron ore mine

Canadian mining firm Baffinland, which struck a cope with Inuit to extract iron ore again in 2014, now needs to double its output and even construct a railroad throughout conventional searching grounds. For a lot of Inuit there, that concept pits jobs in opposition to environmental issues.

Baffinland additionally made a myriad of guarantees to close by communities in reference to the enlargement continuing, together with jobs, cash, environmental monitoring applications, boats, daycares, coaching centres and extra. 

The corporate additionally dedicated to regularly growing transport over 4 years from when Part 2 is permitted, and banning the usage of heavy gasoline oil seven years earlier than it is to be outlawed in Canada’s Arctic.

Most of the commitments are tied to a $1 billion Inuit Certainty Settlement Baffinland signed with the Qikiqtani Inuit Affiliation in 2020, contingent on the enlargement continuing.

Nonetheless, QIA selected to not help the enlargement, citing an absence of belief amongst communities, and uncertainty about whether or not new proposed mitigation measures will really work with a bigger mining operation.

Too many uncertainties remained

In a information launch, NIRB additional defined among the issues on why it selected to reject the proposal, in its longest and most-extensive overview ever.

Particularly, the board stated “regardless of the very best effort of all of the events, the board was not assured that the measures proposed would restrict or forestall these damaging results.”

Along with monetary commitments, Baffinland had promised many mitigation measures to handle the issues heard all through the general public hearings, nearly all of which had been environmental-related.

“The board has concluded that the proposal as assessed can’t be carried out in a fashion that can shield the ecosystemic integrity of Nunavut and that can shield and promote the present and future well-being of the residents and communities of Nunavut, and Canada extra usually,” NIRB’s information launch learn.

The board additionally listed six areas of uncertainty which had been raised throughout the public hearings, together with whether or not Baffinland was precisely conveying the results of the present operation versus what communities had been really experiencing.

NIRB cited testimony from Inuit and community-based organizations which felt Baffinland and regulatory businesses “had not meaningfully thought-about and utilized Inuit information and expertise to handle this uncertainty.”

The board additionally heard how there have been gaps between what Inuit had been experiencing by way of the results of the mine, and the way Baffinland was responding to these issues, if in any respect.

Particularly the board pointed to the difficulty of mud unfold across the mine and the Milne Inlet port, and the adjustments in narwhal and seal populations alongside transport routes for the reason that mine opened.

“Inuit information shared with the board from information holders in Pond Inlet, indicated that these results are altering their capacity/willingness to camp, fish, hunt and berry decide within the areas impacted by purple mud and are additionally altering the timing, location and ranges of effort required to reap narwhals and seals,” the information launch learn.

“Communities indicated that such adjustments are threatening meals safety and creating cultural losses for which communities can’t be compensated. Citing the issues of communities with regard to those potential damaging results, Inuit organizations and nearly all of the community-based Intervenors didn’t help the proposal.”

Financial impacts

In its information launch, the board additionally acknowledged the lack of financial advantages Part 2 would have promised, together with $2.4 billion in royalties, in addition to the potential for the mine’s future to be in jeopardy with out the enlargement.

“Many residents within the affected communities additionally expressed the view that the potential optimistic socio-economic advantages of the proposal concentrate on monetary advantages, whereas the damaging socio-economic results concentrate on results on land use, harvesting, tradition and meals safety that can not be compensated with cash,” NIRB stated.

“Attributable to a number of components, together with schooling, coaching, labour market and demographics, a few of that are past the management of the proponent, there stays uncertainty concerning whether or not the total scale of the proposed advantages will be delivered, and questions stay as to the extent of Inuit contracting and Inuit employment that could be delivered by the Part 2.”