Successful alliance struck with mines

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In Saskatchewan's north, mining companies and Aboriginal peoples have formed a successful alliance. Mining companies draw heavily on northerners for labour and services, often facilitating training and joint ventures to ensure that nearby communities receive maximum benefit from mining activities.

"We believe that the underpinnings of seeking and sustaining community support is to make sure they benefit from your operations," said Jamie McIntyre, director of Sustainable Development, Cameco Corporation. "They are the ones most impacted by our operations and therefore we believe that they should also be the ones that benefit directly from them.

The policy at Cameco, said McIntyre, is that all jobs in its northern mining operations go to northerners first "if we can find suitable applicants or people that want the job and can meet the minimum qualifications," he said. "That's been a fairly fruitful policy for us. The majority of employees in our operations are now Aboriginal northerners."

Cameco has 16 preferred northern suppliers that supply aviation services, catering, trucking, construction services and mine security.

"Almost three quarters of all the services we require in support of our operations come from northern businesses."

Cogema Resources Inc. also relies heavily upon northern employment.

"Wherever possible, if we can fill a position with a northerner or a northern Aboriginal, we will do that," said Morris Onyskevitch, manager of Northern Affairs, Cogema Resources Inc. The company currently employs or contracts about 45 per cent northerners.

"Probably 80- 85 per cent of the northerners are northern Aboriginal," he said.

Those percentages will increase significantly once the mining department opens at McClean Lake this summer.

"I'd say about 98 per cent will probably be from the north, so our percentage will be over 50 per cent," said Onyskevitch.

Cogema currently contracts to wholly-Aboriginal owned Athabasca Catering (First Nations of Black Lake, Fond du Lac, Hatchet Lake, and English River), and 41 per cent northern-owned Points Athabasca. Cogema also contracts to WestWind Aviation, owned jointly by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and the Prince Albert Grand Council.

Since most northerners are not experienced miners, the Cogema and Cameco both facilitate training and education.

"We are quite actively involved in our Multi Party Training Program with the agencies ...

including Northlands College," said Onyskevitch. "[That] is one of the reasons we are able to have a 50-plus per cent rate of northern people working at a mine site.

"Any contracting that we have, we would [prefer to be] a northern company, but there aren't that many to select from with that expertise," said Onyskevitch. "So in most cases they will joint venture with another company."

Once mining activities cease, decommissioning takes place.

"We would like to see [the Cluff Lake mine site] returned to as close to its natural state as possible," said Onyskevitch. "Infrastructure will all be either buried or sold or dismantled. [From] roadways or pathways, we will take all of the soil that is contaminated and bury that." The waste rock pile will be sloped and, along with other land, covered with soil and replanted with native vegetation. "And hopefully within five years, it will be all green," he said.

"The goal in reclaiming and decommissioning is to return them to a condition where they can be used by traditional people as they were used formerly," said Jamie McIntyre. "The reality is the land will likely never be the same as it was before. Obviously you are changing the land dramatically when you build and operate a mine. What our goal is, is to return the land to a condition where it can be used for traditional purposes. And that's what we will do," he said.

This permanent change to the geological landscape occurs in tandem with the permanent change to the economic landscape in te north; companies strive to ensure that northern economic ventures arising from mining activities are sustainable.

"In 2004, Cameco purchased more than $80 million in goods and services from northern enterprises. That helps build capacity in the north," said McIntyre. "Most of those northern businesses are joint ventures. Some of them now have evolved to the point that they are now wholly-owned by northern people. Others are still in a state of evolution where they are partly owned by northern people, partly owned by southern, former experienced suppliers."

"Northern Resource Trucking is a pretty good example," said McIntyre. "That's 79 per cent owned by northern Aboriginal groups and 21 per cent owned by Trimac Transportation out of Calgary. Northern Resource Trucking is now in its nineteenth year of operation."

The La Ronge Indian Band "took that idea and the wealth that Northern Resource Trucking generated and basically leveraged that into many, many other enterprises," said McIntyre. "We now do business with La Ronge Band not only in trucking but also in catering. We also do business with them in environmental services through CanNorth Environmental Services."

Cameco's "long-term goal is to create sustainable businesses in northern Saskatchewan that can service our industry for the next three to five decades," said McIntyre.

Onyskevitch agrees that these northern ventures need to be sustainable.

"We're talking not only labour numbers and contractors, we're also talking technical implications and commitment that the mining company has made to communities."

That's important, he said.