Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I spoke about the Stark Lake cleanup problem near Lutselk'e. Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious environmental issue and I’m talking about some radioactive contamination. I have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to directing his environmental staff to meet as soon as possible with the community of Lutselk'e on this issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would share this information with the Member that the site in question is 22 kilometres east of Lutselk'e on Krys Point and Stark Lake. In the 1950s some advanced exploration was undertaken on site, which included blasting of a tunnel into the hillside in order to obtain samples for an assay. No milling or ore processing took place. The site was abandoned and the tunnel remained open. In the early 1990s, personnel from GNWT mine safety inspected abandoned mine sites around the NWT for safety concerns. The tunnel at Stark Lake was inspected and determined to be a possible concern and blasted closed. The site is located on Crown land and, therefore, the responsibility of the federal government. Indian and Northern Affairs has the site identified on their contaminated site inventory although it is not known if there are any contamination concerns on site. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I do recognize that the majority of the responsibility for cleanup on land and water within the Northwest Territories lies with the federal government. However, I do feel this government has some responsibility. Mr. Speaker, this is an immediate concern and, hopefully, we can get some immediate solutions. I also would be interested in some long-term solutions. Does the Minister have some sort of cleanup strategy for all of the contaminated sites in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
INAC undertook site reconnaissance in 2009 and identified the tunnel and adjacent blast rock pile remains of a cabin and tent frames and an old beached wooden barge. INAC plans to undertake a combined phase 1 and 2 environmental site assessment in the summer of 2010. Mr. Speaker, ENR will commit to obtaining the results of the site assessment and share them with the MLA for Tu Nedhe. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for those responses. Will the Minister commit to working with the federal government and the communities of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e to develop some sort of a strategy to clean up the sites within Tu Nedhe?
Yes, we’ll work with the Member and the communities, and as the environmental assessments phase 1 and 2 are done and we get a sense of what the federal government is finding we’ll be in a position to collectively ensure that we work together to make the right decisions.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Stark Lake seems to be the immediate concern to the people around Lutselk’e, will the Minister commit to getting something done with the federal government and getting something done this summer in as far as actual onsite cleanup.
The environmental assessments by the federal government are planned for this summer. I think that it’s a critical first step to make sure we know what’s there and what may require cleaning up and how. We’ll be keeping an eye on this and keeping the Member informed. Once we have that information we’ll be in an informed position to make the right decisions going forward.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
