A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Village of Pinehouse and two uranium companies.
According to a release, the MOU is based on business development, community engagement, jobs and community investment.
Cameco and AREVA will make one-time and annual community investment payments to Pinehouse.
This includes a one-time payment of $1 million and two additional payments of $500,000 each when the Cigar Lake mine starts up and construction begins at the Millennium Mine project.
Cameco president Tim Gitzel says the entire value of the deal could be worth $200 million over the next 11 years.
“Well those are the numbers that have been talked about,” he says. “I think that’s probably in the ball-park, most of it coming from business development and employment over the next 10 years, so it would be in that range, so that’s a significant amount of money.”
Gitzel says he knows some residents are upset about some of the details of the agreement, but he stresses there are no provisions in the agreement that prevent local residents from speaking their mind or voicing concerns.
“Yes certainly not the case. We heard that some people had looked at some earlier language and thought there was a clause that restricted people talking about it. Not the case at all. In fact I think the communities got the agreement, it’s available to be looked at. You know we encourage people to talk about our business, how we’re doing, to bring those matters to our attention. Nothing of the sort in this agreement.”
The agreement was officially signed at a ceremony in Pinehouse.