Mining exploration mess finally slated to be cleaned up in northern Quebec

This is the first of two stories on efforts to clean up mining waste in northern Quebec — a look at the legacy of the prospecting industry and Quebec’s move to regulate exploration.

After many, many years of asking, John Rupert’s trapline is finally scheduled to be cleaned up. 

The Whapmagoostui elder knows it’s likely too late for him to return to hunt there, but maybe not for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

“Because of my age, I might not be able to go back there,” said Rupert, 71, whose trapline, as traditional hunting grounds are called in northern Quebec, is 60 kilometres southeast of the community. 

It’s a place he knows so deep and so well that he and his father used to travel there in the dark, in a time before flashlights. 

“I have younger brothers and our families — grandchildren — might go there. I want to know how long it will take for us to hunt in that area again,” he said. 

The last time Rupert hunted on that land was in 2006, when a large prospecting camp moved in. It’s not clear what they were looking for. Whapmagoostui is the only fly-in community at the northern edge of Cree territory in Quebec. 

When the camp was abandoned two years later, the prospectors left behind an unimaginable mess: upwards of 300 fuel barrels, 100 old propane tanks, heavy machinery and 14 decaying cabins, along with old fridges, insulation and other equipment.

It is now estimated that there are close to 500 abandoned mining exploration sites in Eeyou Istchee James Bay territory, according to the Cree Nation government. Eeyou Istchee is the traditional name for the Cree territory. 

“I’m happy that it [will be] finally done, that cleaning,” Rupert said, adding he still has deep worries about how many toxins have seeped into the soil and water there and how long it will take to recover. 

“It’s not the same anymore. I cannot hunt there. All the toxic fuel and garbage in that lake. It was very important for me to set up my cabin there. Because there were plentiful of fish and other mammals to feed my family and provide food for myself also,” said Rupert.

Bureaucracy, pandemic, forest fires got in the way 

The clean-up of Rupert’s trapline is scheduled to begin in October, but it’s been in the works for many years, according to Cree Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty.  

“It’s quite an extensive process due to the size and the location of the site itself … It’s extremely remote,” said Gull-Masty. 

In 2018, Quebec and Cree governments, along with the Eeyou-Istchee James Bay regional government and the Fonds Restor-Action Cri — a mining industry group committed to helping clean up abandoned sites — signed an $11 million agreement to restore the abandoned sites in the territory. 

There was bureaucracy to wade through, human resource challenges, then the COVID-19 pandemic and, last year, historic forest fires made it impossible for clean-up work to begin, said Gull-Masty. 

“It took a very long time to get the process launched,” she said, adding this past June, local teams were trained to assist in the clean-up.  In October, a clean-up crew will go in by air to remove anything that can be removed safely, burn debris and take soil samples. 

“It’s not just picking up a barrel, putting it on a trailer, shipping it somewhere. It is hazardous waste. You have to be very aware of the protocols in place,” said Gull-Masty.

After the fall clean-up, another trip is planned for next year in the late winter or early spring to bring remaining debris out over the frozen land, said Gull-Masty.

Ninety-five of the almost 500 abandoned exploration sites have been cleaned up to date, said Gull-Masty, noting that some of them were very small camps without fuel and other toxins that have been reclaimed by the forest. Some abandoned camps have been cleaned up by new prospecting companies which have taken over the claims, said Gull-Masty.

This past May, new regulations have also come into effect in Quebec to require exploration companies to better communicate with Indigenous communities and get permits for certain work, such as dynamiting and road construction, among others.

Rupert focused on knowledge transfer

Rupert, a hunter, trapper and elder, says he gets about 80 per cent of what his family eats off the land.

Right now, he is very focused on making sure his grandchildren learn to hunt the way he was taught.

“My grandchildren are starting to hunt, some of them. We have a big family and I wanted them to learn what I was taught from my father,” said Rupert.

He says being a full-time hunter has provided for his family, even when buying food at the grocery store was too expensive. 

“If you don’t have a job here. It’s very hard for me to get something from the store … It was easier for us to get it from the land — what we eat for our families and ourselves,” said Rupert, adding in the 1980s another camp — this one a hydro electric camp — set up on his trapline took 40 years to recover from a fuel spill. 

Rupert says he really hopes to be able to travel with the clean-up crews in October and in the spring to make sure everything is done properly. 

On Tuesday, part two of this series will look at the new rules in place since May in Quebec and how they are being received by Cree officials.