Cancelled Ekati hearing ‘had already cost $200,000’

A public hearing scrapped at the last minute when the Ekati diamond mine’s owners withdrew an application had already cost in the vicinity of $200,000, organizers said.

Mine owner Burgundy had applied for regulatory permission to mine underground at its Sable former open pit.

That application triggered a public hearing that was scheduled for two days this week in Behchokǫ̀.

However, on Tuesday morning Burgundy said it was withdrawing its application. The company said part of the reason for the withdrawal was to discuss some items in more detail with the Tłı̨chǫ Government, which has been approached for comment.

The Wek’eezhii Land and Water Board is the regulator charged with organizing the public hearing.

Ryan Fequet, the land and water board’s executive director, said this marked the first time in his 17 years with the board that a public hearing had been scrapped on less than a day’s notice.

“All the contractors are paid, all the catering and food is prepped, legal counsel are in transit or already here,” Fequet said on Tuesday afternoon as staff halted preparations at Behchokǫ̀’s new cultural centre.

“It’s definitely disappointing that it had to be cancelled but we understand there are different considerations the company would have made,” he added.

According to Fequet, even a one-day public hearing costs a minimum of around $100,000 to stage once all parties’ travel and other factors are considered.

This one, he said, would have been “in the mid-range … probably a couple hundred thousand bucks.”

In its letter to the Wek’èezhìi Land and Water Board on Tuesday, Burgundy said it needed more time to “improve” the application after feedback from groups intervening in the process, including the Tłı̨chǫ Government.

“We need to take the time to get this right,” chief executive officer Kim Truter said in the letter.

Fequet said he looked forward to “discussing more with the company and finding out more specifics – if there was anything that could have been done differently or what those challenges are that the company referred to.”