Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. Work is beginning, under the authority of a federal water licence, for the deconstruction of the roaster complex at the Giant Mine site, but I’ve heard that AANDC no longer has water resource officers in Yellowknife. Their water licence inspector positions are all vacant except for one in Inuvik.
Given the significant potential for environmental and human health impact from the Giant Mine roaster complex deconstruction – as we all know it’s full of arsenic trioxide and so on, 16 tonnes, I think – this raises serious issues around inspection and enforcement of terms and conditions. So will the Minister commit to urgently confirming that its project partner, which is also the regulator, will have a full complement of qualified water inspectors on staff here in Yellowknife to monitor safety and compliance throughout the term of this work? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have folks monitoring the work of the Assembly, the questions being asked, and yes, we will follow up forthwith on this urgent issue. Thank you.
This government shares responsibility for the health and safety precautions for air quality monitoring for the deconstruction project. Air sampling stations are located in town at Sir John Franklin, Niven Lake and on Latham and they will be monitored, but it’s been pointed out that fence line monitoring would be much more effective for providing an early warning system and a better indicator of site conditions and management responses. So rather than waiting to say, hey, containment have arrived, yikes, will the Minister commit to have ENR meet with AANDC project partners to amend the plan for sample collection to include air sampling stations at the fence line between the roaster complex and town, and continue sampling 24 hours a day, not just during operations, with no shutdown during winter hiatus and active operations and that the results be made publicly available on the Internet? Mahsi.
We have an air quality program coordinator that is involved in this whole project. So I will be talking to the deputy. We will be looking at the concerns the Member has raised and the suggestion he’s made about the different location and we’ll give it its due and full consideration, recognizing the urgency of the concern. Thank you.
I will look forward to what the Minister concludes on that one.
On the issue of emergency response, the worst situation would likely be a fire during the deconstruction, which would cause immediate downwind threats to human health. AANDC says there’s an emergency plan in place and warnings would be issued, but even if I heard a siren, I wouldn’t know what to do. Go inside? Listen to the radio? This information should be easy to communicate through ads and flyers delivered to homes.
Will the Minister again commit to contacting his partners and urging them to advertise and distribute detailed information on how residents will be informed in case of an emergency and what they should do in the event of a toxic cloud moving towards town or some other such event? Mahsi.
As with the other concerns that have been raised, I will be reviewing the concerns with the deputy and the officials involved in monitoring this project and involved to ensure that the safety considerations are addressed. We will go over the concerns raised by the Member, and if it requires getting in touch with our partners and revising whatever communication and emergency response plan is there, then yes, we will take the necessary steps should they be required.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short, short supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, thanks to the Minister. I look forward to that information. Thanks for those amendments.
There are also concerns with the dust management plan for deconstruction sets action levels for toxic dust conditions so high that site activities will not trigger any management response whatsoever.
Will the Minister commit to provide information to this House on how action levels for dust conditions were set and an explanation of why those action levels prompting dust control are set so high?
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for oral questions has expired, but I will allow Mr. Hawkins to get his questions in today.
