Labrador Inuit divided over proposed uranium mine

A boom in uranium exploration has brought jobs but has also divided opinions in Inuit communities in northern Labrador.

Surging demand for nuclear fuel has developers trying to start three new uranium mines across the country, including one near the small village of Postville, on Labrador's northern coast.

Todd Broomfield, who represents the nearby community of Makkovik in northern Labrador's Inuit Assembly, said the long-term consequences of radioactive waste are front in his mind, not a job boom on the horizon.

"Thirty, 40 years of jobs with good pay versus living next to a tailings pond for potentially hundreds of generations of Inuit? Do we really want that for our land?" Broomfield said.

Postville's 250 residents depend on seasonal work in fisheries and forestry for survival.

The prospectof uranium-related jobs has been appealing to many people including Broomfield's own brother, Wayne Broomfield, who has been working with Aurora Energy's monitoring efforts.

Morris Jacques, who manages a fish-counting fence near Postville, said that because of uranium exploration, almost everybody in the area who wants a job can find one.

He said one fisherman who has been working with a mining company "probably made more in a couple of weeks than he did all summer fishing."

Aurora Energy's proposed site for a uranium mine is within land controlled by Nunatsiavut, the Inuit self-governing region in northern Labrador. The mine could bring millions of dollars in mining royalties.

Karen Gear, who is raising three teenagers in Postville, supports the mine, but as long as the radioactive waste is properly contained and monitored.

"With whatever you [do] in life, there's always a cost to it, especially when it comes to the land," Gear said.

Douglas Jacques, whose family has hunted and trapped on land near the proposed mine for three generations, remains unconvinced.

"They'd go off with millions and millions, and we won't get a thing out of it," he said.