MN-S Concerned By Pay Rate For Mine Clean-up

MN-S Concerned By Pay Rate For Mine Clean-up

Monday, December 14, 2009 at 10:39

The Metis Nation – Saskatchewan has concerns about clean-up efforts underway at the old Gunnar and Lorado minesites near Uranium City.

The MN-S raised the concerns Thursday at a Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission hearing, where the Saskatchewan Research Council was applying to extend the exemptions around those sites.

The concerns were less about the site, though, and more about how people are being treated.

MN-S legal counsel Doug Racine says the Metis feel $30 per hour would be a more appropriate wage than the $20 per hour they’re currently being paid for their work, especially given the skill set they say is needed to safely transport people by boat on the bay.

“What’s happening right now is that with the $20 an hour (and) the fact that they can only claim 43 cents a kilometre, it appears to the Metis Nation – Saskatchewan head office, and certainly myself, that the Uranium City Metis local right now is subsidizing the clean-up,” Racine says.

He says the MN-S is also worried about how traditional knowledge will be gathered, saying that knowledge is the property of elders and the community, not the research council.