Panel Report

7.1 Education

During the past half-decade, the Multi-Party Training Plan and related programs have made it possible for increasing numbers of northern residents to find employment in various industries, particularly mining. These educational initiatives should be encouraged and we recommend that the Multi-Party Training Plan, or an improved program for training-to-employment, be renewed. Continued improvement of the K to 12 and college system is also important to permit the people of northern Saskatchewan to share in the opportunities offered by uranium mining and other industries.

7.2 Employment and Business Opportunities

In the past, Human Resources Agreements attached to the surface leases for mines have provided the mining companies with encouragement to hire residents of Saskatchewan's north and to use northern contractors as providers of goods and services. This approach has worked well, causing northern employment levels to increase steadily and providing northerners with an incentive to establish a variety of businesses. The Province should continue to attach similar requirements to surface lease agreements. The industry-wide objectives should be to increase northern employment participation to at least 67 per cent and to maintain northern business involvement at 35 per cent or greater. The Province should not allow its mineral resources to be depleted without compensating benefits that will assist the people of northern Saskatchewan to fully participate in the future of Canada.

7.3 Community Vitality

The vitality of northern communities must be protected during adjacent development of the uranium mining industry. To avoid the possibility of continuing detrimental effects on northern communities, qualified professionals should be engaged to identify a set of indicators appropriate for monitoring and studying the impacts of uranium mining on the quality of life in northern Saskatchewan. Cameco has generously offered to provide $250,000 annually towards funding such a study and for the establishment of a northern community socio-economic and health impact database. It is recommended that the federal and provincial governments work in conjunction with Cameco to ensure that this program is initiated in a timely fashion and that it receives the necessary support to operate effectively.

7.4 Research

Uranium mining is going to continue in northern Saskatchewan for at least several decades. Applied research directed toward the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to process the ore and store the tailings would likely prove to be a good investment. The panel recommends that such research be carried out by the Province in cooperation with the AECB and the mining industry, using laboratories located at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) or one of the Saskatchewan universities. The Petroleum Division of the SRC could serve as a model for a program of industry-related applied research.

7.5 Mills

The practice of milling ores from several mines at a single mill should be encouraged. Less environmental damage, in total, will result from the combined milling of several ores as compared to mills and tailings management facilities near each mine. Long term monitoring will also be more feasible if there are fewer sites that require attention.

7.6 Tailings Management Facilities

Tailings are the greatest long-term source of potential environmental contaminants associated with these projects. Construction of reliable tailings management facilities is, therefore, of primary importance. We recommend the use of subsurface deposition in mined-out pits. Care should be taken when a site is selected for subaqueous tailings disposal. It is usually better to choose a site after the pit has been completely mined out and the geology and hydrogeology of the surrounding formations have been thoroughly studied.

7.7 Waste Rock

Deposition of potentially acid-generating waste rock on the surface must be avoided. In order to ensure that surface deposition does not happen, we recommend that research be undertaken into better methods for separating inert and potential acid-generating waste rock.

We do not favour the use of lakes as waste depositories if other options are available. Ideally, potential acid-generating waste rock should be returned underground or placed in mined-out pits. When pits are used, they should be completely filled and capped with several metres of inert waste or till to prevent the formation of a pond that might eventually become polluted by upward diffusion of contaminants from the waste below.

7.8 Long-Term Monitoring

The facilities that have been developed to store uranium mill tailings will each contain millions of tonnes of waste that is both toxic and radioactive. Since humankind does not have experience with the maintenance of facilities over the length of time required for the wastes in these storage pits to become benign, it will not be possible to leave the sites completely unattended in the foreseeable future. Although the tailings management facilities may perform as predicted and require little mitigative action, it would be foolhardy to proceed on that assumption. Previous experience with tailings disposal systems teaches that it would be more prudent to monitor continually and be prepared to handle unexpected eventualities. If the facilities prove to be operating well, the frequency of monitoring could decrease, but the need for periodic checks will never completely disappear. For this reason, we recommend the establishment of an authority that could monitor all sites on a continuing basis and provide mitigation as needed.

7.9 Cumulative Effects Monitoring

The potential spread of contaminants is assessed on a regional scale by the Cumulative Effects Monitoring Working Group (CEMWG), which was established in 1994 by Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management and the Atomic Energy Control Board. The Environmental Quality Committees support this initiative because of the strong ties that northern residents have to the land. It is important that adequate funding continues to be provided for this work, and that local residents become more intimately involved in the activities of the CEMWG.

7.10 Environmental Quality Committees

Formation of the Environmental Quality Committees is one of the most important consequences of these reviews. Providing northern people with a better understanding of the uranium mining industry and empowering them to participate in its future development is the best way to protect the northern environment. We strongly recommend to both the federal and provincial governments, as well as the mining companies, that they continue to support the work of these committees.

7.11 Roads

Almost all northern development places additional requirements on the existing roads. There is a need for a comprehensive study of the cumulative demands that will be placed on the northern roads in the next decade and beyond. The province should complete such a study and be prepared, in cooperation with the users, to provide the roads required and to maintain them at acceptable standards. An improved transportation infrastructure may be one of the primary legacies of uranium mining developments in northern Saskatchewan.

7.12 Worker Health and Safety

Mine workers, particularly those in underground developments, depend on mine regulators to ensure safe workplaces. It is, therefore, essential that legislation and regulations provide adequate protection for both contract and non-contract workers; that mine sites be inspected frequently; and that due care be exercised to ensure that safe work practices are being followed.