Nunavut regulators ask Baffinland for more answers

Nunavut regulators are asking Baffinland Iron Mines to beef up its research on the potential impacts of a mine at Mary River.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board has given the company a longlist of questionsthat the projects draft environmental impact statement, submitted a year ago, doesn't answer.

These include how Inuit land-users will be affected, the expected job benefits for communities, and the cumulative impact of the Mary River project along with other proposed major mining projects in Nunavut.

Ryan Barry, executive director of the Nunavut Impact Review Board, said there are over 350 unanswered questions which were collected at Baffin community hearings.

Barry said Baffinland's project is unprecedented.

"This project does pose some unique challenges, primarily from the scale," he said.

The massive iron ore mine about 160 kilometres south of Pond Inlet would require a railway line and a port, and year-round shipping through the ice.

Barry also said there are significant gaps in baseline data from the area.

"There are issues with the amount of available baseline data regarding the marine environment, so there was considerable work needing to be done to address some of these gaps, in order to fully address that within the final impact statement," he said.

The company must attempt to answer the board's questions in its final environmental impact statement.

Baffinland has toldthe boardthat its final impact statement would be submitted by the end of January, but Barry said the company can take longer in order to collect all the required information.

Once the final statement is submitted,the boardwill review it to make sure it meets the criteria, then a final hearing for the project will be scheduled.