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The Saskatchewan government blasted Ottawa’s “egregious” decision to spend billions of dollars to clean up abandoned mines in the far north while providing only $12.3 million for a similar project in northern Saskatchewan.

Federal Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was in Yellowknife, NWT last month to re-announce the Liberals’ 2019 budget promise to spend $2.2 billion over 15 years on eight contaminated former mine sites in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

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That did not sit well with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who said Monday that he agrees the Northern Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program would create economic opportunities for Indigenous people, and questioned why it does not cover the Gunnar uranium mine.

The federal and provincial governments have for years been at odds over who should foot the bill for the largest environmental remediation effort in Saskatchewan history, the total cost of which is now estimated to be $280 million — up from the $25.6 million estimate made in 2006.