Panel Report

During the six-year review period, the panel has witnessed some extraordinary changes. The number of northerners employed has increased, with specific pre-employment training plans having been developed to facilitate the wish of many northern people to find steady employment. There has been a major growth in the number and types of opportunities for northern businesses. We have seen the creation of the Environmental Quality Committees and the Athabasca Working Group to provide northern residents with an opportunity to have a greater influence on the activities of the uranium industry and associated government regulatory departments. The cumulative impacts of uranium mining are being studied by the Cumulative Effects Monitoring Working Group. Financial securities are now required for the decommissioning of all mine facilities before they are constructed. Attempts are being made to develop a socio-economic and health impacts database for northern communities. The issue of resource revenue sharing is being discussed between the federal and provincial governments and northern leaders. These examples of progress are impressive.

It has been exciting to grapple with the question of whether or not uranium mining should expand in northern Saskatchewan and, if so, under what conditions it should be allowed to proceed. We have listened to diverse opinions offered by many members of the public and have considered these opinions when developing recommendations in our reports to guide both the federal and provincial governments. We are satisfied that both levels of government have listened to our advice carefully and have, generally, responded in a positive way.

We are concerned, however, that the momentum for change and new initiatives might be lost with the completion of the panel process and the lessening of opportunities for the public to challenge and question what is going on. We also acknowledge the difficulty we have had in forecasting future events and priorities. What makes sense now may appear to be less reasonable in a few years.

For these reasons, we recommend that a retrospective be held after approximately ten years to consider how effective the panel process has been in the long term. Such a retrospective would help the federal and provincial environmental review agencies, CEAA and SERM, to evaluate the benefits of the environmental assessment process. There are several questions to be answered: Did it make a difference over the long term? How precisely do values predicted during the environmental assessment process match observed values for financial revenues to governments; employment levels for northern residents; business opportunities for northerners; site-specific emissions of contaminants; and the impact of operations on the biota both on-site and in a regional cumulative setting? How many panel recommendations were accepted by the provincial and federal governments, and how faithfully were they implemented? What is the continuing status of the many initiatives introduced as a result of the public reviews (e.g. the Environmental Quality Committees, the Athabasca Working Group, the attempts to measure and monitor northern community health and vitality, and the epidemiological study of the incidence of lung cancer and mortality of uranium mine workers)?

Answering such questions will require the cooperation of the industry and government departments. We suggest that CEAA and SERM would be the appropriate bodies to initiate and facilitate such a retrospective. We would suggest that the review itself be contracted to an independent body which should not include either present or former panel members. We also recommend that the retrospective include involvement of the public in some manner.

In the final analysis, the impacts of the many projects we have reviewed will have a dramatic effect on the people of Saskatchewan, particularly in the north. All participants in the environmental assessment reviews deserve to know if their efforts ensured mitigation of the negative impacts, and accentuation of the positive impacts.