The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Saskatchewan government continues to call on the federal government to help clean up former uranium mine sites in the northern part of the province. In a recent report to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the province recommends steps for the continued environmental protection and public safety at two prominent former uranium mine sites Ñ Lorado and Gunnar. "Saskatchewan is committed to participating cost-effectively in decommissioning former uranium mine sites," Northern Affairs Minister Buckley Belanger said in a statement. "What is needed immediately is for the federal government to accept its historical, moral, and current responsibilities, and to commit funding for the proposed work." The Lorado uranium mine and mill site, about eight kilometres south of Uranium City, shut down in 1960. The province contends that public records indicate the owner of the Lorado site is a former federal Crown corporation and not the Government of Saskatchewan. The Gunnar mine and mill site, about 25 kilometres southwest of Uranium City, also ceased operation in the 1960s. The estimated cost to clean up the Gunnar site, and some 40 other smaller former satellite uranium mine sites in the area, is about $23 to $24 million over eight years. Belanger said Northern Saskatchewan residents could be trained to clean up the sites, providing employment opportunities "in a new company that could, in time, service similar remediation needs across Canada and beyond." Saskatchewan Environment Minister David Forbes said in a statement that the province is "committed to continuing to assess and to address environmental risks and any threats to public safety associated with these sites."
