The federal government is moving ahead with its plans for the long-abandoned Faro mine, and hopes to have a closure plan submitted to the territory’s assessment board by this fall.

That’s according to an update on the site provided Tuesday to media by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.

The site spans the traditional territories of the Kaska Dena Council, Ross River Dena Council, Liard First Nation and Selkirk First Nation.

The update comes after the May 2 date which saw the care and maintenance of the mine switch over to Ottawa.

The site was previously cared for and maintained by the territorial government.

In efforts to streamline the process, that responsibility was handed off to Ottawa – meaning the contractors were no longer territorial employees.

But Lou Spagnuolo, the director of the Faro Mine Remediation Project with INAC, said there will still be efforts to keep and provide jobs to Yukoners.

“We’re working with First Nations to provide them training funds now to start building that capacity so they’re ready,” he told reporters.

It comes after the Ross River Dena Council’s concerns that local communities should be able to reap the economic rewards of the remediation process, especially through contracting opportunities and training programs.

That’s something Spagnuolo said he’s well aware of, adding the plan will try to address in the logistics.

These include working with Yukon College through its existing environmental monitoring program “to get more people through the program to be prepared for the work that is coming.”

Shelagh Rowles, the executive director of the Centre for Northern Innovation in Mining at the college, said “we are keen to do more and are in discussions around what this may look like over the next few years.”

A spokesperson for the college added that the program currently has 11 students from the areas of Ross River, Mayo, Watson Lake, Carcross, Pelly Crossing and Faro.

On the business side of things, Spagnuolo admitted that “there aren’t a lot of large companies that can work on a project of this size.”

That’s why adopting a construction manager approach would be useful, he said.

It would see the hiring of a project manager, who would then subcontract the work out to companies – meaning local businesses could bid on small work packages rather than being overwhelmed with the overarching responsibility of remediation.

“If we would’ve went for a half a billion dollar contract, it would likely be a large international company that would be winning it,” Spagnuolo said, adding that wouldn’t allow for local businesses to have a lot of skin in the game.

He explained the project in three key phases: the ongoing care and maintenance of the site, the “urgent works that cannot wait until closure” and the development of the closure plan itself.

The care and maintenance falls under the federal government’s responsibility through a contract with engineering company Parsons Corp. The urgent works includes the North Fork Rose Creek diversion, which is seeing high levels of zinc in its water, among other things.

Recognizing in 2014 that there was significant contamination at the creek which can impact fish, Spagnuolo continued that the designing of a new diversion took place with engineers and consultants.

“We will start construction later this year,” he said, adding that applications for a construction manager are also now being reviewed.

Consultation meetings held between June and August 2017 saw a total of 112 residents attend, according to figures in a release provided at the briefing.

Those meetings took place in Ross River, Watson Lake, Carmacks, Pelly Crossing, Whitehorse and Faro.

The top five concerns addressed were water quality, human health, fish and fish habitat, wildlife and economic opportunities.

Spagnuolo offered further clarity on the last concern.

He continued that while there were no specific targets set with First Nations about hiring a specific number of Indigenous workers, there are “a number of measures that we’ve incorporated into the contract” that could encourage their participation.

He said he hopes Parsons is able to hire local youth “to mentor them for positions that could be available in the future.”

He pointed out that the engineer consultant hired to monitor the water quality on site hired two Indigenous students over the last year.

Likening communities to “land stewards,” he acknowledged that with the site in Ross River’s backyard, having First Nations carry out the water quality monitoring “is very important for this project going forward.”

Meanwhile, the territorial government isn’t out of the picture entirely.

A spokesperson for Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR) noted that the Yukon government won’t be involved in the operations and delivery.

But it did commend the remediation project’s goals, and said it would work to “ensure that the project is meeting the objectives in a way that represents and reflects the needs and interests of Yukoners.”

Brigitte Parker, a communications analyst with EMR, continued that the Yukon government “participated in discussions” with its federal counterparts “when the timelines were established.”

It will continue to be consulted as it moves through the environment and socio-economic assessment process, she added.

The Faro mine was once the largest open pit lead-zinc site in the world, and the Yukon’s largest private-sector employer.

After being abandoned in February 1998 by the Anvil Range Mining Corp., the minesite is now one of the biggest remediation projects in the country.

Spagnuolo said he expects it to be in the top five.

“We want to make sure it is robust and it will stand the test of time, so it does take time to design that,” he said of the closure plan.

He admitted the site has come with its challenges, particularly because of its lengthy history and extended timelines. However, Spagnuolo said he was encouraged by the developments over the years as it related to sites.

“The Faro mine operated during a time when environmental regulations and legislation wasn’t as stringent as it is today,” he said. (It opened in 1969.)

New policies that required projects to “put security and bonding in place” took effect over the last decade or so, Spagnuolo noted.

With that onus now on companies or individuals bringing projects to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board, the director said he hopes that requirement “can ensure that you don’t get another Faro or Giant situation in the future – or minimize that potential,” he added. (He was referring to the Giant gold mine near Yellowknife.)

That was a common concern even among residents. During the consultation process, one questionnaire respondent also wrote that while they do not live or visit the site much, they hope the time and effort involved in the remediation process will set a precedent for the risks of abandoned sites.

They hope “for the consequences to be used as a determining factor for any future projects in the Yukon,” as mentioned in reading material provided at the briefing.

Meanwhile, Spagnuolo admitted that Faro is “not a very technically challenging site to deal with.” But the sheer size of it can be overwhelming.

“The challenge is the scale of it; there’s just so much material,” he said, noting the 320 million tons of waste-rock the site hosts.

INAC says the mining waste left behind could be spread a metre deep across 70 football fields.

The entire remediation project will be expected to take 10 to 15 years to complete, he said, and could see upwards of 100 workers employed per year over that timeframe.

The government will keep a “close eye” on the site to make any adjustments for about a decade after the construction, with monitoring and water treatment to be done “likely in perpetuity, so forever,” Spagnuolo said.

Until then, an update is hoped for sometime in July, when a project manager is selected.

The project proposal is expected to be submitted to the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board later this fall, and a release noted that construction on the North Fork Rose Creek diversion will also begin this year.

The release concludes that the site will likely see remediation begin in 2022.

Government documents from 2013 assessed the cost to clean up the site at $590 million.