Federal program to target 8 highest-risk abandoned mines in Yukon and N.W.T. | CBC News
The federal government has released details of its long-term plan for cleaning up abandoned mines in the North.
Carolyn
Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, was in Yellowknife on
Monday to re-announce the government’s intention to spend $2.2 billion
over 15 years on remediation of the eight highest-risk abandoned mine
sites in Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Money
for the Northern Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program was previously set
out in the 2019 federal budget. However, dollars wouldn’t begin flowing
until the 2020-2021 fiscal year, after the federal election in October.
Questions about what could happen to this funding if a new government is
elected in October were not immediately answered by the department.