A Regina magazine says it continues to be frustrated in its quest for information from the Northern Village of Pinehouse.
Briarpatch magazine editor Andrew Loewen says for over a year the publication has been trying to get financial details of a $200 million collaboration agreement between Pinehouse and uranium mining companies Cameco and Areva.
Loewen says Pinehouse released documents to Briarpatch earlier this year but this information had to do with communications between the village and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and not the collaboration agreement.
The magazine has filed a statement of claim against Pinehouse and the Briarpatch editor says he is hopeful they can get some answers when the two sides sit down for a mediation session in Saskatoon on July 30.
“We’re looking for financial statements from Pinehouse Business North, for articles of incorporation for Pinehouse Business North – which is just something that should be able to be pulled out of a desk drawer – and then distribution of the finances between year end surpluses and losses for the Village of Pinehouse and correspondence and payments between Cameco and Areva,” he says.
Loewen adds it is in the public interest that the magazine be able to access the information.
“There’s been a lot of money exchanged and a lot of collaboration with leadership that the community has not had – there hasn’t been transparency for the community.”
Late last year, Saskatchewan’s information and privacy commissioner also ruled Pinehouse has not been forthcoming in the publication’s request for information on the collaboration agreement.
A call to the Pinehouse village office Wednesday was not returned.