(Cameco.com)

By Glenn Hicks

Relief

Cameco distributes $1 million in COVID-19 relief

May 1, 2020 | 11:46 AM

Describing the process as “humbling and overwhelming,” the CEO of Cameco says they have supported 67 community projects with their recently announced $1 million COVID-19 Relief Fund.

The uranium mining company unveiled the initiative April 15 and set a deadline of April 28 for charities, non-profits, town offices and First Nation band offices to apply for up to $50,000 each to help their communities hit hard by the coronavirus.

“We knew the need was large and immediate, so we tried to move as quickly as we could,” Tim Gitzel told paNOW. “We ended up getting 581 applications with $17.5 million worth of requests.”

A total of 40 different communities will receive a share of the funding for various urgent requirements due to COVID-19, but Gitzel said two areas of need stood out among the applicants, the first being personal protective equipment (PPE).

“The North just doesn’t have access to it and so [there were] lots of requests for hand sanitizer, gloves and masks,” he noted. “And then the other thing that struck me was just the necessities of life: food, shelter, emergency food hampers.”

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Gitzel said the company had been able to use its PPE supplier contacts to speed up the requests. Cameco uses a lot of that equipment for day to day operations at its mining sites.

Other than the million dollars in funding, he said the urgency of the pandemic situation and the impact on northern communities had resulted in employees coming forward to effectively top things up.

“We’ve had a hundred or so people come by the office here dropping off cheques, money, food stuffs, diapers …we’re adding to the million dollars just through the sense among our employees that they want to give back as well.”

The full list of recipients can be found here.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow