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A day of pride for Baffin

Qikiqtaaluk Corp. proves that Inuit can do the job

JIM BELL

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Jim Prentice, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, stands with some of the many workers who helped clean up Resolution Island. Prentice and other officials handed out “pride and recognition awards” to numerous workers and contractors, at a function held Dec. 2 in Iqaluit’s Navigator Inn. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL) Art

Workers attach a plastic geo-technical liner to the bottom and sides of a new landfill site on Resolution Island. The liner ensures that contaminants from debris stored there won’t escape into the soil. (PHOTO COURTESY OF INAC)

Harry Flaherty, QC’s environmental director, managed the Resolution Island project for the corporation. He says QC is now ready to take on more cleanup jobs around the Arctic. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

Perched above a rocky cliff at the northern end of Resolution Island, this deserted radar station suffered from severe PCB contamination after it was abandoned in 1962. (PHOTO COURTESY OF INAC)

But Qikiqtaaluk Corp., along with their partners at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, proved them wrong.

After nine years of hard work, they cleaned up the mess. And they did it with a workforce that was about 90 per cent Inuit.

“What an amazing experience. It’s one that I will never forget,” said Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik, who, until two years ago, served as project coordinator on the cleanup.

Located about 310 kilometres southeast of Iqaluit at the mouth of Frobisher Bay, the deserted radar station at Resolution Island, known to Inuit as Tudjaat, was one of the most badly-contaminated sites in the Arctic.

Sheutiapik, along with Indian and Northern Affairs minister Jim Prentice and officials with QC, attended a celebration Dec. 2 in Iqaluit to recognize more than 600 workers who took part in the nine-year, $65-million effort to clean it up.

Most of those workers were Inuit from communities such as Iqaluit, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung and Resolute Bay, who took advantage of numerous training opportunities in areas ranging from trades to office work.

“They came in as youths and became mature because of the hard physical work some of them did,” Sheutiapik said, pointing out that nearly everyone who set foot on the island gained skills they can use to get better jobs.

For the Qikiqtaaluk Corp., it was a triumph.

Harry Flaherty, QC’s director of the environment and manager of the Resolution Island project, said the job put $12 million worth of wages and benefits into the pockets of Nunavummiut and created $16 million worth of work for Nunavut businesses.

Best of all, the Resolution Island cleanup contract gave QC a chance to show that cleanup jobs on Inuit land are best done by Inuit firms and Inuit workers.

“The project proves that major cleanups in the Arctic can be effectively done and managed by local sources,” Flaherty said.

QC says it now has the capacity to bid on future cleanup contracts, with a trained, readily available workforce. Since the Arctic is dotted with abandoned military sites, mostly from the old DEW line, there’s a lot of work left to do.

QC’s next contract is for a cleanup of the FOX-C site at Ekalugad Fiord, on the east coast of Baffin Island about halfway between Clyde River and Qikiqtarjuaq. QC has a $4.9 million contract to construct a work camp there, and a $12 million contract to do the actual cleanup.

“QC will keep working hard to make sure our expertise, experience and knowledge are used to continue involvement in other cleanups in the Arctic,” Flaherty said.

For his part, Prentice heaped praise on QC and on staff at INAC’s regional office in Nunavut for the close partnership they developed during the life of the project.

“What you have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. You know this better than I,” Prentice said.

The U.S. air force built the Resolution Island radar station between 1951 and 1954, where it served as part of the Pinetree and Pole Vault radar detection systems.

About 100 American and Canadian airmen worked there until 1961 when the U.S. government abandoned the site and the station closed. The Canadian military abandoned Resolution Island in 1972, and in 1976, turned it over to the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

As the years went by, the old base crumbled. Deadly PCBs, a cancer-causing chemical once used for insulating electrical equipment, spilled out of radar equipment, poisoning the soil and threatening to wash into the sea.

Federal officials first discovered the mess during site visits between 1987 and 1990. It turned out that of all the abandoned Arctic waste sites for which INAC is responsible, Resolution Island contained the most severe soil contamination from PCBs.

Along with the PCB headache, they found other potentially dangerous substances, such as transformer fluids, hydrocarbons, asbestos and heavy metals.

In 1997, INAC began cleanup work, using QC as its contractor. But work progressed slowly because of a limited budget.

In 2003, when the federal government poured $3.5 billion into a 10-year program aimed at cleaning up contaminated sites around the country, work accelerated at Resolution Island.

INAC worked out a three-year plan to get the cleanup finished, and the amount of total employment income paid to workers jumped to about $1.7 million a year. In 1997, employment income totalled only about $215,000.

After they were finished, workers dug up and packaged 4,000 cubic metres of highly contaminated soil and shipped it to the South. They excavated another 14,000 cubic metres of less contaminated soil and stored it in a landfill site.

They also dismantled 15 buildings, cleaned up eight old dumps, and got rid of 6,000 square metres of barrels and other debris. Much of that material is stored in three new landfill sites.

For the next 25 years, INAC will monitor Resolution Island to make sure it stays clean.

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