Premier Main says Ottawa should have the right to cancel Nunavut mining projects

Prime Minister Mark Carney wants the ability to cancel mining licences and claims on government-owned land in Nunavut if a cancellation is in the national interest.

Premier John Main said he supports Ottawa's legislative effort to do just that. 

The federal government would not have to rely on national security justifications to cancel a mining project in Nunavut under Bill C-31, but instead remove licences and claims based only on an opinion that stopping a mine is in the national interest. 

"We support Canada in terms of asserting national security or the national interest in Nunavut," Main told Nunavut News on Oct. 21 after endorsing the bill in the legislative assembly.

Main said the reasons for cancelling a mining project in Nunavut would be complex and that he testified in favour of the contents of Bill C-31 before a Senate committee on Oct. 6.

Risks to public safety, the environment, natural hazards or serious operational failures are all among the criteria under "national interest" that could cause a mining project to be cancelled, according to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.

MMG Limited, majority owned by the Chinese government, acquired zinc and copper mining rights in the West Kitikmeot region along the proposed Grays Bay Road and Port route in 2012. 

The premier hopes the federal bill won't hurt the investment environment for mining in the territory and that the Nunavut Agreement provides certainty for resource operations.

But the premier also thinks that Ottawa wouldn't use the power to cancel projects very often.

"We certainly want to maintain that certainty, but at the same time, we do support the objectives that the federal government has laid out for themselves, and I have every reason to expect that these new powers, if they are put in place, would be exercised sparingly," Main said. 

The NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines did not respond to a request for comment on how the proposed legislation could affect the mining investment climate in Nunavut.

Compensation is not guaranteed for companies that have mining plans cancelled by the federal government for reasons of national interest, Bill C-31 states. 

Northern Affairs Canada Minister Rebecca Chartrand confirmed that Bill C-31 would allow the federal government to cancel Nunavut mining licences and claims in an Oct. 20 House of Commons committee hearing.

Chartrand said the Government of Canada could offer compensation "in some cases" to companies that have mining rights stripped.

The proposed law has passed two of three votes in the House of Commons and still faces another three votes in the Senate. 

Only mining operations on federally-owned Crown land are affected by the bill — Inuit-owned land is not impacted. 

Roughly 80 per cent of Nunavut's land is currently federally owned, but will transfer to the Government of Nunavut under devolution by April 2027. 

The GN needs to create its own versions of federal laws to complete devolution, and the introduction of Bill C-31 so close to the deadline is posing challenges, Main acknowledged. 

"It is creating complexity for us in terms of devolution," he said.Bill C-39 would give federal government powers beyond national security

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William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News.