The Northwest Territories stands to miss out on the abundant economic opportunities presented by the multi-billion-dollar remediation of Yellowknife’s Giant Mine, says the board overseeing the mine’s cleanup.
“Where is the strategy for capturing the benefits of that spending?” David Livingstone, chair of the Giant Mine Oversight Board, said before a committee of MLAs on Wednesday.
“There’s this huge opportunity and it’s slipping through our fingers, and that’s very frustrating.”
Livingstone said it’s up to the Northwest Territories government to make sure money spent on Giant Mine’s remediation, and future remediation projects in the territory, stays in the N.W.T.
He made his remarks during a public briefing on the cleanup of the abandoned gold mine, and how that cleanup could enhance the territory’s economy — that is, if the N.W.T. government makes a concerted effort to capture its benefits.
Giant Mine operated from 1948 until 2004. The federal government took responsibility for the mine after its then-owner Royal Oak Mines Inc. went into receivership in 1999.
Last November, the Giant Mine Remediation Project updated the estimated cleanup costs from $1 billion to $4.38 billion. Taxpayers will shoulder those costs.
Remediation of the mine involves, among other things, filling pits, taking down buildings, constructing a state-of-the-art water treatment plant, and containing around 237,000 tonnes of highly toxic arsenic trioxide dust deep underground.
The oversight board estimates the remediation project will spend around $240 million annually for the next 15 years, and boost the territory’s GDP by $108 million a year.
A scale model of Giant Mine at the Giant Mine Oversight Board office compares the mine’s chambers, which store arsenic trioxide, to a building in Yellowknife. The oversight board estimates the remediation project will spend around $240 million annually for the next 15 years, and boost the territory’s GDP by $108 million a year. (Liny Lamberink/CBC)
Graeme Clinton, an economist and oversight board director, said spending on remediation activities will go into industries like waste disposal, construction, mining services, scientific services, transportation, logistics, accommodation and food services, and medical services — industries that exist in the N.W.T.
The issue, said Clinton, is that right now demand for these services is greater than the local supply.
The N.W.T.’s ability to benefit from the Giant Mine cleanup, he added, extends only as far as its capacity to meet the project’s labour and business demands.
“If you want to grow the economy and benefit from spending that’s going to occur on Giant Mine, or other remediation projects around the territory, then it’s about addressing supply issues in all of those industries, such that you can capture a greater proportion or greater share of the money that’s entering the economy,” he said.
Remediation project not meeting employment targets
The federally-run Giant Mine Remediation Project tracks employment by hours worked. It reported that Northerners worked around 45 per cent of the total labour hours, on average, and Indigenous employees worked around 21 per cent.
The remediation project is below its employment targets in both categories.
Its target for hours worked by Northerners is between 55 and 70 per cent, and its target for Indigenous workers is 25 to 35 per cent.
Giant Mine’s remediation began in 2020 and is set to wrap up in 2038.
Natalie Plato, deputy director of the remediation project, said the team extended its timeline by nine years, in large part to maximize participation by N.W.T. workers and businesses.
Natalie Plato is the deputy director of the Giant Mine Remediation Project. She said the project team extended its timeline by 9 years, in large part to maximize participation by N.W.T. workers and businesses. (Liny Lamberink/CBC)
Clinton said it’s perhaps unrealistic to expect 100 per cent of the work at Giant Mine to be carried out by Northerners, but that that would be the target if the government sought to reap the maximum benefit from remediation.
‘Better late than never’
“If we really want to build the capacity in the Northwest Territories, it comes back to our education system,” said Great Slave MLA Katrina Nokleby.
“We’re not graduating people in the Northwest Territories that can then go on to become these specific type of professionals that are needed for Giant Mine.”
Frame Lake MLA Kevin O’Reilly asked if it was too late in the project’s timeline to capture more of the spending happening at the mine.
“Better late than never,” replied Livingstone. “But it’s not going to happen on its own.”
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the country’s merchandise trade deficit narrowed to $1.3 billion in September as imports fell more than exports.
The result compared with a revised deficit of $1.5 billion for August. The initial estimate for August released last month had shown a deficit of $1.1 billion.
Statistics Canada says the results for September came as total exports edged down 0.1 per cent to $63.9 billion.
Exports of metal and non-metallic mineral products fell 5.4 per cent as exports of unwrought gold, silver, and platinum group metals, and their alloys, decreased 15.4 per cent. Exports of energy products dropped 2.6 per cent as lower prices weighed on crude oil exports.
Meanwhile, imports for September fell 0.4 per cent to $65.1 billion as imports of metal and non-metallic mineral products dropped 12.7 per cent.
In volume terms, total exports rose 1.4 per cent in September while total imports were essentially unchanged in September.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
