Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have a new agreement for Inuit oversight of the Mary River Mine. Announced Monday, the Inuit Certainty Agreement was signed on June 16.
Baffinland's president says the agreement, which is meant to give more authority to Inuit over the environmental impacts of Mary River, will be worth more than $1 billion over the life of the iron ore mine.
"When you look at the mine, its assets, the iron ore deposit, it's over a billion dollar improvement into the current royalty environment, over the life of the mine, as we continue to develop the resource," said Baffinland's president and CEO Brian Penney.
The Inuit Certainty Agreement has been in the works since an environmental review of the mine's production and rail expansion ended abruptly last fall. Negotiations on the agreement officially began earlier this spring, says PJ Akeeagok, president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.
The new, legally binding agreement clears up most technical concerns that previously left the Baffin Inuit organization unable to support the Nunavut Impact Review Board's hearing for the phase-two expansion, which would increase production at Mary River.
"[The agreement] provides us a roadmap to resolve a lot of our outstanding issues," Akeeagok said. "The concerns that we've heard in terms of the communities saying that their voices need to have weight, need to be able to influence what they are experiencing."
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The agreement is focused on environmental protection, and lays out mechanisms for making sure Inuit have a say in environmental monitoring, he said.
It promises that an Inuit stewardship program will expand to all communities impacted by the mine. These Nauttiqsuqtiit Inuit Stewards will monitor the land and water and report to a committee that will be able to tell the mine when something is wrong.
This information will be used in the mine's adaptive environmental management plan, a living document that will be informed by Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit knowledge).
"These are unprecedented advancements for any Indigenous organization to obtain in terms of oversight and the level of engagement," Akeeagok said. "It puts Inuit in the forefront in terms of Inuit-led independent monitoring."