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Inco has enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the community of Sudbury, Ontario. In recent times, we have endeavoured to expand and strengthen that alliance by developing new relationships with the area’s aboriginal peoples.
The decision to decommission the Whistle Mine, an open pit operation located approximately 30 kilometres north of Sudbury, marked the beginning of our new association. “In 1995, when we filed closure plans for the mine, we communicated with the Wahnapitae First Nation,” recalls Lisa Lanteigne, Coordinator Decommissioning and Reclamation with Inco’s Environment, Health and Safety Department in Sudbury. “Wastewater from the mine, located upstream from the Wahnapitae Reserve, was being treated and released into the Post Creek which ran through the reserve. From both an environmental and ethical perspective, and given the potential impact of decommissioning, it made sense to then involve the community in the process.”
The relationship between Inco and the 330-member Wahnapitae First Nation was formalized by the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Implemented in 1999, the MOU establishes a list of principles designed to promote closer relations, promote the participation of Wahnapitae First Nation community members as employees and contractors in the mine closure program and create a joint environmental management and monitoring system.
To date, progress has been made on all three fronts. Regular meetings between Inco and Wahnapitae representatives are taking place on a quarterly basis. Meanwhile, a number of band members have been trained and hired directly by Inco or contractors participating in the closure process. At the same time, a joint Environmental Management Committee, responsible for overseeing the joint decommissioning process, has been established.
“The success we have achieved in partnering with the Wahnapitae First Nation has encouraged us to broaden and strengthen our relationship with the region’s aboriginal peoples,” says Glen Watson, an environmental biologist with Inco’s Environment, Health and Safety Department in Sudbury. “For instance, we recently entered into discussion with the Sagamok First Nation regarding environmental planning for the potential reactivation of our Totten Mine, located in the same watershed as its reserve.”
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A True Test of Partnership
“In the summer of 2000, after an extremely heavy rain, Inco called to alert us that an accident had just taken place. A 24-hour-a-day monitoring system indicated that treated water from the Whistle Mine pit, which was undergoing decommissioning, had spilled and found its way into the creek that runs through our reserve. In the days immediately following the incident, we received visits from senior Inco executives as well as supplies of bottled water. Subsequently, the company asked us to jointly select outside consultants to discover what caused the spill and develop a plan to ensure it would not happen again. Although it was an unfortunate situation, our community was very pleased by the company’s response. Inco communicated with us openly, shared information and included us in the decision-making. The experience was a true test of partnership that became the foundation for the trusted relationship that the Wahnapitae First Nation and Inco share today.”
- Peter Recollet, Director of Sustainable Development at Wahnapitae First Nation and a member of the joint Inco-Wahnapitae Whistle Mine Environmental Management Committee
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- Held regular meetings with Wahnapitae First Nation representatives to discuss issues pertaining to the MOU.
- Continued to work with Wahnapitae First Nation members of the joint Environmental Management Committee to oversee ongoing decommissioning of Whistle Mine.
- Initiated discussion with the Sagamok First Nation regarding environmental planning for the potential reactivation of our Totten Mine.
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