Sask. taxpayers sinking millions into uranium mine cleanup

Saskatchewan taxpayers are looking at a massive bill as the provincial and federal governments battle it out over who is responsible for cleaning up an abandoned uranium mine.

The Gunnar mine and mill site operated from 1955 until it was abandoned in 1963. It shut down with little to no remediation and a huge mess was left behind.

That mess included roughly 4 million tones of tailings, some of which leaked into Lake Athabasca. Two acid pits and a large amount of asbestos were also left behind.

The town site itself consisted of more than 80 structures, including a large indoor mall, a bowling alley and even a curling rink.

Cleanup costs were initially estimated to be in the $25-million range.

In 2006, Natural Resources Canada and the provincial government agreed to split that cost 50-50. But the price tag has since swollen to more than $289 million.

The province has argued both the federal and provincial governments profited from the mine and should be mutually responsible for the cleanup.

“We need to have this a 50-50 equal share,” said Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre. “In the original memorandum of agreement, back in 2006, it said in black and white that if costs were to escalate beyond the $24-some million, split both ways, there had to be discussions, if and when costs were to change, or the balance of costs were to change.”

Eyre said those attempts to have discussions have fallen on deaf ears.

At the same time, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has ordered the province to move forward with the cleanup or face a fine.

“So we’re told to keep doing the work but (Natural Resources Canada) hasn’t paid us for the work that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has ordered us to do. That seems to me to be irrational at best,” Eyre said.

The federal government has so far contributed just over $1 million to the remediation effort.

The provincial government has filed a lawsuit in an effort to force Ottawa to help pay for the cleanup.

Federal government files statement of defence

The federal government has recently filed a statement of defence at Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench.

It argues the federal government “did not profit from the development or the operation of the mine.”

It also states “Saskatchewan has failed to manage the decommissioning of the mine and reclamation of the Gunnar Mine (project) in a timely and responsible manner, such that they have breached the MOU.”

The statement goes on to say: “The particulars of Saskatchewan’s breaches include incurring significant and unnecessary cost overruns, failing to provide proper financial and technical reporting and pursuing a license to provide proper financial and technical reporting …”

Why clean it up?

The remediation was deemed necessary because attempts to keep people out of the contaminated site were ineffective. There were also concerns with the human consumption of fish and other wildlife in the area that had come in contact with the contaminated area.