When Royal Oak went bankrupt in 1999 the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) took over responsibility for cleaning up the Giant mine site.
[4] The arsenic trioxide dust is stored in 15 stope or rock chambers that have been sealed with concrete approximately 250 feet (76 meters) below the surface.
The taxpayer-funded (c. $900m to approximately one billion dollars) remediation plan to permanently freeze the underground arsenic trioxide dust chambers was approved by the Canadian federal government in August 2014.
[10][9] According to the federal civil servant in charge of the clean-up, Jane Amphlett, using technology like that used in ice-hockey rinks, coolants will permanently freeze the storage chambers containing the arsenic trioxide dust to keep groundwater seepage out in what is called the "Frozen Block Method.
In winter 2020 the Yellowknives Dene First Nation (YKDFN) demonstrated outside the site demanding a federal apology, compensation, and a role in the contracts for remediation.
Additionally, the contamination is the topic of the interactive documentary "Shadow of a Giant" by Saskatchewan filmmaker Clark Ferguson who was artist in residence with Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) in 2013.