Kiggavik uranium meetings underway

Public meetings about Areva Resources Canada Inc's proposed Kiggavik uranium mine in Nunavut began Sunday night in Baker Lake, as regulators gather citizens' concerns about the project's potential environmental impacts.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board is organizing the meetings to inform people about the Kiggavik project, as well as to collect public feedback that will help form the basis of a future environmental impact statement for the project.

For the next two weeks, residents in seven communities in Nunavut's Kivalliq region can learn more about Areva Resources' plan to build an underground and open-pit uranium mine at its Kiggavik site, located 80 kilometres west of Baker Lake.

"What I hear from the people is that they are in support of advancement, they are in support of development. But I guess more or less like in other human beings anywhere, the public health and well-being of the people is of concern," Baker Lake MLA Moses Aupaluktuk told CBC News.

"So I think there needs to be a lot more education about the environmental aspect of it."

Concerns have already been raised about the proposed mine being situated near some important habitat for caribou.

"It's one of the key areas that we've identified for legislated long-term protection, and that's the post-calving area," said Ross Thompson of the Beverly and Qamanariaq Caribou Management Board, which has applied for federal funding to intervene in the review.

Aupaluktuk said it is the public's right and responsibility to ensure the Nunavut Impact Review Board and other regulatory bodies conduct an open and inclusive review of Areva's project.

"It's up to the people of Nunavut and the people of Baker Lake to hold accountable these organizations, institutions and other entities," he said.

After Baker Lake, the review board will hold hearings in Repulse Bay on April 28-29. The meetings will wrap up May 10 in Rankin Inlet.