“It was about making a problem go away as quickly and as quietly as possible.”

That is the Yukon NDP’s stance on the $1.3-million deal signed in 2014 by the Yukon government, City of Dawson and Darrell Carey, the operator of Dawson’s Slinky mine.

After years of back-and-forth, the agreement was made to resolve outstanding issues.

Carey, a gold placer miner, owns the rights to mine under a section of the Dome Road in Dawson.

The Dome Road winds up all the way to the Midnight Dome, a scenic vantage point with views of the Yukon River and Dawson City.

On the way up to the lookout point, there are several homes – with residents who have been vocally against having mining operations in their neighbourhood.

The 2014 deal included re-routing the Dome Road to accommodate mining and better the safety of the road for residents – and Carey would have until the end of 2017 to complete mining operations, and would then surrender some or all of his claims to open the door for future residential development in the area.

The parties were intended to meet after Oct. 1 to determine the actual claims to be surrendered.

But at the end of November, Carey applied for a 10-year permit to mine 31 new claims on the eastern side of the Dome Road – a side of the road that was not covered in the 2014 agreement.

Carey’s Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESAA) project proposal states that the project is for a Class 4 placer mining operation, a more advanced type of exploration which requires the assessment of a detailed operating plan.

“Project activities are proposed to occur from April 1 to October 31 annually for ten years,” the proposal states.

NDP Energy, Mines and Resources critic Jim Tredger calls the government’s settlement “next to useless” for not including all sections of the road.

“People of Dawson are right back where they started, wondering whether there will be a new mine operating in their backyard once again,” Tredger said last week in the legislature.

The agreement, he said, didn’t properly deal with the core issue of mining claims in municipalities.

Despite the NDP’s claim that the agreement should have put an end to mining in that area, legally speaking, Carey would be within his rights to stake these particular claims, if his proposal is approved.

The Yukon’s Placer Mining Act prohibits staking new claims within municipal boundaries – but the Dome Road area which Carey has claims on, were all staked prior to the 1993 expansion of Dawson’s municipal boundaries.

In addition to this, mining on the eastern section of the Dome Road is not new.

Sue Thomas, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (EMR), told the Star that there has been mining on those claims this past season and the season before that.

“When they talk Slinky mine, they are talking about the claims that are to the west,” Thomas said, adding that the current application is simply a re-licensing.

“Darrell Carey has been mining some of those since 2012,” Thomas said.

Carey had an agreement with the previous claim holder, Vicbi Placers, to mine those particular claims, she added.

The previous licence had expired in December 2014, she said.

“And the operator has now applied for a new licence.”

Klondike MLA Sandy Silver, meanwhile, sees a problem with the negotiation process more than the proponent’s right to mine.

“It’s a divisive topic in Dawson,” he said in an interview late this morning. “It’s not a new issue, but we need better communication with our territorial government to solve these issues.”

The 2014 agreement to re-route the road, Silver said, was like watching a car skidding into a crash that could have been avoided.

The government could have done a much better job negotiating that deal, he said.

“There are other solutions, (and) we have the ability to make some consensus.”

In the legislature, EMR Minister Scott Kent didn’t directly address the issue of the east side of the road not being included in the agreement, but grilled the NDP to state its position on the matter.

“Would they expropriate mineral rights from existing claim holders, or would they compensate those claim holders for the economic loss that would exist?” he asked.

“That’s an important question that I think deserves an answer from the New Democrats when it comes to what their position actually is.”

Tredger simply stated his party wouldn’t spend $1.3 million to “benefit a single mine operator” without first asking about the operator’s plans for the rest of the claims.

Currently, there is an ongoing YESAB assessment of Carey’s recent application.

Kent noted that the public comment period is open right now.

One submission states concern that approving the project would allow miners to tear up the Dawson Cross Country Ski Trails which residents have worked hard to create and maintain.

“Surely there is other land they can access to do this work that doesn’t disrupt a piece of Dawson that gives so many health benefits to its citizens,” the comment reads.

“Please do what is right and deny this application,” another comment urges.

But Thomas said the ski trails are actually on old mining routes.

“They wouldn’t be there if it hadn’t been for all of the mining in the area,” she said.

The Klondike Active Transport and Trails Society, the Dawson-based organization that has worked to provide the Klondike region with recreational trails, was unavailable to comment this morning.

The proposal states that the deadline for comments is Dec. 22.

“We will await the results of the YESAA process to determine what’s going on,” Kent told the legislature Monday.