Statement on the Yukon Legislative Assembly’s motion regarding the Eagle Gold Court Appointed Receiver

The following is a statement from Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources John Streicker:

“Since the June 24, 2024 catastrophic heap leach failure at the Eagle Gold Mine, the Government of Yukon has taken every step available to protect the environment, secure assets on site, protect the interests of workers and contractors, respect the rights of Yukon First Nations and communicate with the public in an open and transparent manner.

“We continue to support the decision of the Yukon Legislative Assembly to call the court-appointed receiver to testify as a witness. However, with respect to the motion tabled today, a court process has already been initiated. On Monday, the Receiver will seek direction from the court about how to proceed within the process by which they were appointed.

“Victoria Gold Corporation indicated that they were unwilling or unable to take the steps necessary to protect the environment, secure assets and protect the interests of workers and contractors on site, and to do the work required following the significant incident that occurred while they were in control of their operations. Following that, the Yukon government took steps to seek the appointment of a receiver by the court in order to ensure responsible oversight and remediation of the mine site. The First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun also brought forward an application for a court-appointed Receiver and supported the application brought by the Yukon government.

“Following their appointment by the court, the Receiver’s role has been to manage all of the assets, undertakings and property of Victoria Gold Corporation, to facilitate environmental monitoring, testing and remediation activities and to report to the court on developments related to the receivership.

“Because of the work of the receiver, the Yukon government, the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun and all Yukoners have benefitted from significant remediation steps, robust environmental monitoring, the continued employment of certain working-level Victoria Gold staff, the securing of assets left on site by Victoria Gold, the construction of new facilities to treat and store water and the management of water on site to mitigate the consequences of large amounts of cyanide and other toxic chemicals, among other things.

“Had the Government of Yukon not sought a Receiver, Victoria Gold Corporation would have used its last minimal financial resources in a manner that would have left Yukoners and all stakeholders in a much worse situation. This would have led to an eventual abandonment of the mine site.

“Yukoners would have been left in a situation where they would be forced to pay for the entirety of the clean-up and closure of the mine site, without the ability to recover those costs, preserve the opportunity for a potential restart of operations and monetize core and non-core assets on site to pay for the cost of remediation. There would have been no court-supervised structure in place, leading to a haphazard enforcement of various creditors’ rights on a piecemeal basis.

“The absence of a coordinated receivership would have meant no mechanism in place to ensure that the interests of Yukoners could be protected, including through guarantees of local procurement requirements, benefits to Yukoners or Yukon companies and a recognition of the need to ensure that remediation could be completed in a manner that respected the environment.

“In sharp contradiction to the Victoria Gold Corporation’s actions prior to the appointment of the Receiver, the Government of Yukon has taken significant steps to keep the public informed about the actions and events that have occurred on and around the mine site since the heap leach failure. These efforts have been supported by the receiver throughout the receivership.

“Since the heap leach failure ten months ago, the Government of Yukon has held ten public briefings, issued 30 news releases or information bulletins and provided four briefings to opposition members with a commitment to publicly post all questions and answers from the latest briefing, which included the court-appointed receiver, on Yukon.ca.

“In addition, since the receivership began, the receiver has issued three extensive reports to the court which are posted on their website and on Yukon.ca, issued monthly reports in between court dates, participated in a public briefing with Government of Yukon officials, attended meetings in Mayo with Chief and Council of the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun and attended General Assemblies upon request of the First Nation, and remains in regular communication with the Government of Yukon and the First Nation of Nacho Nyak Dun.

“The Government of Yukon believes strongly in transparency. We have always said that we support the efforts of the court-appointed Receiver to provide that to the Yukon Legislative Assembly.

“We believe that the Yukon Legislative Assembly serves an important role within our democracy to make and pass laws, oversee the work of the government, and represent the interests of the people of the Yukon. We support their request to have the Receiver appear before the Assembly, while also supporting the Receiver’s request to ensure that they have the necessary authorization and guardrails that can only be provided by the court through the process by which they were appointed.

“The receiver was appointed to its role by the court and for that reason, is acting as an officer, bound by the orders of that court. We believe that the appearance by the Receiver as a witness in the legislative assembly should be done in a way that respects the role of the courts in setting direction and maintains the integrity of the Receivership.  

“At the end of the day, we are in this situation because of the significant event that occurred at the Eagle Gold Mine and the failure of Victoria Gold Corporation to do the work necessary to protect the environment, workers and our territory’s future. While we appreciate that there are individuals in the territory and the legislative assembly who disagree with our decision to seek a court-appointed receivership and are concerned with the interests of the Victoria Gold Corporation, we encourage them to put Yukoners first and do what is right for the land, the water, our health, our economy and our future.”