Groups that want a say in the environmental review of a proposed uranium mine in Nunavut say they aren't getting enough federal funding to properly review the proposal.

In a letter dated June 4, the federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department said a total of $250,000 will be set aside for interveners in the Nunavut Impact Review Board's review of Areva Resources Canada Inc.'s proposed Kiggavik uranium mine, located 80 kilometres west of Baker Lake.

The $250,000 is a fraction of what local governments and groups like the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board wanted. Nine groups had requested a total of $1.5 million in intervener funding.

"The Kiggavik proposal is going to be setting a standard, and we just want to make sure that all parties have a chance to make sure that it's properly reviewed and anything that comes will be set up properly and within the proper safeguards," Ross Thompson, secretary-treasurer of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board, told CBC News on Wednesday.

Thompson said if his group had received the $112,000 it wanted, it would have been able to provide information about the impacts of mine development on important caribou habitats.

Now, fighting with other groups for a share of a $250,000 pot would put all interveners at a disadvantage, Thompson said.

"We just wonder whether that amount will do justice to the proper type of review and information gathering that's needed," he said.

Jamie Kneen of Mining Watch Canada said Areva's proposal for the Kiggavik mine will present serious issues to regulators, since it would become Nunavut's first uranium mine if it is approved.

During the environmental review, interveners will review Areva's data about the impacts of the proposed mine, then provide their feedback to regulators and the general public.

But Kneen said a shortage of federal funding to help interveners will leave those groups handicapped.

"I think the real issue is to what extent the interveners are able to review that material on a technical basis, rather than just sort of forming an opinion of it?" Kneen said.

Kneen said it is common for company funds to far outweigh the funding that interveners have.