Federal decision expected today on Baffinland mine expansion

A decision that will determine the future of Baffinland Iron Mines' Mary River project in Nunavut is expected on Wednesday.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal is set to issue his verdict on the company's proposed Phase 2 expansion project that would see the mine's annual output doubled to 12 million tonnes of ore. The project would also involve the construction of a new 110-kilometre railway to the Milne Inlet port.

Vandal's decision has been a long time coming. It's been six months since the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) concluded its review of the project with a recommendation that it not be allowed to proceed.

The NIRB's review was a four-year process — the longest review in the board's history — that pitted economic development against environmental protections and the sustainability of traditional hunting. The full report, released in May, is 441 pages.

The NIRB concluded that the mine has the potential for "significant adverse ecosystemic effects" on marine mammals, fish, caribou and other wildlife, which in turn could harm Inuit culture, land use and food security. 

The project should therefore "not be allowed to proceed at this time," wrote NIRB chairperson Kaviq Kaluraq to Vandal in May.

Normal procedures give the federal minister 90 days to accept, vary or reject the board's recommendation. That would have meant a decision from Vandal by mid-August. 

The minister instead said in July that he would need more time, and pushed his decision back another 90 days, to November.

In the meantime, Vandal gave the go-ahead last month to another temporary production increase at the mine for this year. 

A spokesperson for Northern Affairs Canada confirmed in an email to CBC News this week that Vandal's decision about the Phase 2 expansion project would be delivered to the NIRB on Wednesday, and then posted on the board's public registry.

In a statement last spring, Baffinland CEO Brian Penney said the company was disappointed by NIRB's recommendation, and would ask the federal government "to consider all of the evidence and input and to approve the Phase 2 application with fair and reasonable conditions." 

In 2016, when the NIRB recommended a gold mine in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region not be allowed to go ahead, then-federal minister Carolyn Bennett rejected that recommendation, asking NIRB to give the project a second chance. 

That mine was given approval the following year.