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.”
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 200 points in late-morning trading, while U.S. stock markets were also headed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 205.86 points at 24,508.12.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 336.62 points at 42,790.74. The S&P 500 index was up 34.19 points at 5,814.24, while the Nasdaq composite was up 60.27 points at 18.342.32.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.71 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was down 15 cents at US$75.70 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down two cents at US$2.65 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$29.60 at US$2,668.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.47 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
OTTAWA – The economy added 47,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate declined for the first time since January to 6.5 per cent, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.
The agency says youth and women aged 25 to 54 drove employment gains last month, while full-time employment saw its largest gain since May 2022.
The overall job gains followed four consecutive months of little change, the agency said.
The unemployment rate has been steadily climbing over the past year and a half, hitting 6.6 per cent in August.
Inflation that month was two per cent, the lowest level in more than three years as lower gas prices helped it hit the Bank of Canada’s inflation target.
The central bank has cut its key interest rate three times this year, and is widely expected to keep cutting as inflation has subsided and the broader trend points to a weakening in the labour market.
Despite the job gains in September, the employment rate was lower in the month, reflecting continued growth in Canada’s population.
Statistics Canada said since the employment rate saw its most recent peak at 62.4 per cent in January and February 2023, it’s been following a downward trend as population growth has outpaced employment growth.
On a year-over-year basis, employment was up by 1.5 per cent in September, while the population aged 15 and older in the Labour Force Survey grew 3.6 per cent.
The information, culture and recreation industry saw employment rise 2.6 per cent between August and September, after seven months of little change, Statistics Canada said, with the increase concentrated in Quebec.
The wholesale and retail trade industry saw its first increase since January at 0.8 per cent, while employment in professional, scientific and technical services was up 1.1 per cent.
Average hourly wages among employees rose 4.6 per cent year-over-year to $35.59, a slowdown from the five-per-cent increase in August.
The unemployment rate among Black and South Asian Canadians between 25 and 54 rose year-over-year in September and was significantly higher than the unemployment rate for people who were not racialized and not Indigenous.
Black Canadians in that age group saw their unemployment rate rise to 11 per cent last month while for South Asian Canadians it was 7.3 per cent. For non-racialized, non-Indigenous people, it rose to 4.4 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was little changed in late-morning trading as the financial sector fell, but energy and base metal stocks moved higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 0.05 of a point at 24,224.95.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 94.31 points at 42,417.69. The S&P 500 index was down 10.91 points at 5,781.13, while the Nasdaq composite was down 29.59 points at 18,262.03.
The Canadian dollar traded for 72.71 cents US compared with 73.05 cents US on Wednesday.
The November crude oil contract was up US$1.69 at US$74.93 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was up a penny at US$2.67 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$14.70 at US$2,640.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up two cents at US$4.42 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
