Northern officials, uranium mining company stand firm behind collaboration agreement
- Fraser Needham | March 30, 2014
It's been a little over a year since uranium mining companies Cameco and Areva signed a $200 million collaboration agreement with the northern Village of Pinehouse.
The deal's proponents say it ensures jobs, investment and a bright future for what has traditionally been an impoverished Métis community.
However, not everyone agrees the collaboration agreement is a good thing, and it is currently the subject of two lawsuits. The first lawsuit accuses Pinehouse, the Kineepik Métis Local, Cameco and Areva of signing the collaboration deal under less than transparent conditions.
The second lawsuit has been brought forward by Briarpatch Magazine for failure by the village to comply with a freedom of information request for specific financial details of the agreement. In a ruling late last year, Saskatchewan's information and privacy commissioner agreed that Pinehouse has been less than forthright in providing details after repeated requests for information.
Lastly, the initial draft of the collaboration agreement was met with accusations in some quarters of containing a "gag" order forbidding local community members from criticizing the uranium industry. However, no such order exists in the final version of the agreement.
In spite of some of the criticism, Pinehouse Mayor Mike Natomagan stands firm that the agreement is a good thing for the community and says residents are already reaping the benefits. He points to the recent $1.3 million invested in the local hockey arena to install an artificial ice plant and $6 million in wages, work placements and scholarships as just two of the positive benefits the collaboration agreement has brought to Pinehouse.
"We wanted to sign this agreement to do our capacity building with our young population," he says. "We needed this to give our people hope, to give our people confidence into working for the long term contractors that are in the mine site."
Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel adds his company has no secret motives in signing the agreement. It is just the simple fact that the uranium mining industry reaps many benefits from its activities in northern Saskatchewan and feels it has a corporate responsibility to invest in communities like Pinehouse, he says.
"I think we have a responsibility as a company to give back, to be involved in the areas in which we operate to give back to the communities, to work with the communities, to help where we can develop them," he says. "We can't solve all the issues anywhere, but we can do our part."
Both Natomagan and Gitzel say the signatories of the deal have no problem with discussing the agreement in an open forum and have done so a number of times at community meetings.
Natomagan says he takes the criticism in stride, adding whenever there is an agreement of this type of financial magnitude, there is bound to be some opposition.
"Soon as you involve money in a little Aboriginal community like this, there's always been lack of trust and we expect that and in fact we encourage that for people to disagree with us."
Gitzel adds Cameco is fully aware the agreement has its detractors but the company tries to focus on the positive things it is doing for the community.
"When I go over to the skating rink here in Pinehouse, see the kids out here, see the families that are enjoying these facilities, see the positive energy over lunch those are the people we focus on."
A new annual report also says Pinehouse Business North provided a little over $19 million in contracting services to Cameco and Areva mine sites in 2013.
On Mar. 19, Pinehouse and Cameco officials held a special local event to mark the one-year anniversary of the collaboration agreement.