Participant Funding Program decision – Renewal of Cameco's uranium mine licence for the Cigar Lake Operation

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced on October 13, 2020, that it was offering a total of $100,000 through its Participant Funding Program (PFP) to assist Indigenous peoples, members of the public and stakeholders in reviewing the Cameco Corporation (Cameco) licence renewal application and in participating in the Commission hearing process for the Cigar Lake Operation.

Background

Participant funding was made available by the CNSC to:

• provide new, distinctive and valuable information to the CNSC through informed and topic-specific interventions
• assist interested parties in reviewing the licence renewal application and in participating in the Commission hearing process for Cameco’s Cigar Lake Operation

A funding review committee (FRC), independent of the CNSC, was established to review the funding applications received by the CNSC’s PFP administrator and to make recommendations on allocating up to $100,000 to eligible applicants. The FRC was given the flexibility to recommend funding beyond $100,000 based on the value-added of the funding applications received.

The FRC members were:

• Paul Scott, retired regional director of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Vancouver office
• Steve Burgess, retired director of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
• Bruce Young, retired director of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

On December 18, 2020, the FRC met to review 5 PFP applications received by the CNSC, totalling $252,176.50.

Eligibility and funding criteria

For more information on participant funding and how it works, including details on eligibility and funding criteria, please read the PFP guide.

CNSC participant funding decision

The CNSC has carefully considered the FRC’s recommendations on the allocation of participant funding for Cameco’s licence renewal application for the Cigar Lake Operation and has approved reimbursements of up to $109,094 for the following recipients:

Applicant	Maximum amount of available funding
Ya’thi Nene Land and Resource Office	$50,000
Canadian Nuclear Workers’ Council	$3,164
Métis Nation-Saskatchewan	$30,250
English River First Nation	$25,680
Total	$109,094

Additional information:

Adam Zenobi
Participant Funding Program Administrator, CNSC
Tel.: 613-415-2814
Email: pfp@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca