Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Municipal and Community Affairs. In October of last year I asked some questions of the Minister with regard to the removal of assets at the Treminco mine site and the clean-up of that mine site. He advised me in December that they were developing an RFP for the removal of assets and that we would have the results of that RFP by mid-April 2011. I would like to ask the Minister first off what the status is of the work in terms of removal of assets at the mine site.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The assets were auctioned off, however, the winning bidder did not pick them up. They were given final notice and still did not pick them up. We’re exploring other options as to how we can get a lot of the major infrastructure off the property.
I’m really confused now, because the Minister told me that information in October of last year. At that time, and later on, I was advised that there was an RFP that was being developed in February 2011. We’d have the results of an engineering study and what could possibly be done by mid-April 2011. I guess I need to ask the Minister if the RFP for engineering work was ever let.
We did have an appraisal on the site there, and the cost of removing all the infrastructure there was significantly higher than what we would have got for it had we sold it off as surplus. That’s the stage we’re at right now.
I now have to ask the Minister, we’ve decided that it’s too expensive to remove anything, so what’s the next step. Are we going to leave those assets there until they totally rot into the ground 300 years from now? What’s the plan of the department to clean up this mine site?
We still have to find out what we’re going to do. It’s not our intent to leave a lot of this infrastructure on the site. Obviously, we had made efforts to try and have folks bid on it. It was auctioned off. The winning bidders, as I said, didn’t pick it up. We have to find a way that we can remove this site and not have to wait for 300 years.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad we’re on the same page in terms of not waiting for 300 years. The removal of assets is one thing, but the clean-up of the mine site itself is a bigger issue. I know it’s multijurisdictional, but I’m wondering if the Minister can advise whether there is any long-term plan in terms of mine clean-up. That would be clean-up of the whole site, remediation and so on.
We are looking at a couple of options as to the actual site clean-up itself. We have two avenues we’re looking at right now. We are just in the process of trying to see which one would work best. It is our intent to find every way possible to have this site cleaned up. Once we’re clear with that I can communicate to the Member privately and give her an update as to the status and where we’re at with getting the site cleaned up.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
