Senator speaks on developing transportation routes and facilities in Nunavut

Grays Bay Port and Road an important project

By Dennis Patterson

Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson recently spoke on the past and future of transportation in the region, including the Grays Bay Port and Road project. This is the first part of his speech delivered at the Kitikmeot Trade Show in Cambridge Bay.

Over my long career, I’ve always looked at the Kitikmeot as a region whose leaders have shown great vision and innovation throughout the years.

There was Peter Kamingoak, who represented this region at the founding meeting of ITC (Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, which later became Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami); Bobby Kadlun and Simon Taipana, who represented the Kitikmeot in land claim negotiations and asserted Inuit occupation of lands south of here to Contwoyto Lake and beyond … and dealt with the Dene to carve out the western boundary of Nunavut. Helen Klengenburg, who broke a glass ceiling to become the first Inuk regional director and then was an educational pioneer in getting her MBA (masters degree). I think of Kane Tologanak, who created the Kitikmeot region and moved the regional centre from Fort Smith to Cambridge Bay and initiated the first Northern Preference Policy when he was NWT Minister of Government Services.

I think of Red Pedersen, trader and pioneer businessman who helped keep the Kitikmeot in

Nunavut when we were settling the boundary and later became Speaker of the Legislature and Peter Taptuna, an outstanding Premier of Nunavut. I think of Leona Aglukkaq, who became the first Inuk senior cabinet minister, and as I said last night, I think of Wilf Wilcox, Stephen King and the late Syd Glawson, who represented this community so well in successfully pitching Cambridge Bay as the best home for CHARS (Canadian High Arctic Research Station).

This visionary approach to investments and projects meant to bolster the Kitikmeot has manifested itself in recent history in the field of transportation and business and I want to applaud the Inuit and corporate leaders of this region for continuing to have the vision and foresight to support transformative change in the region.

This past October, I had the pleasure of working alongside Inuit partners to host the Arctic Sovereignty and Security Summit in Iqaluit with NORAD modernization on the horizon. Every speaker from academics to Nunasi, Nassituq, to NTI (Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated) and finally Natan Obed said the same thing: we need to make bold investments in support of the people of our territory, their communities and Inuit.

More than once we heard about the importance of multi-purpose, multi-user legacy infrastructure that would not only lead to better de- fense capability in the Arctic, but would support local entities and build strong, healthy communities throughout the North.

‘Visionary advocacy’

In the Kitikmeot, the long-talked about Grays Bay Port and Road is one such project; it is the continuation of a decades-long trend of visionary advocacy first for the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project (BIPAR, I think of Charlie Lyall and his brothers in that connection) — and now its new route to the natural deep water port at Grays Bay in the Coronation Gulf.

It’s easy to think about this project as simply a road and port to service the resource sector. However, it’s so much more. I’m excited about this project because of what it means to community resupply. An all-weather road that, once connected to its sister project in the NWT, would be Nunavut’s first connection to Canada’s highway system, makes this a truly nation-building project up there with the Dempster Highway now going all the way to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic coast. It would be the first deep water port in Canada’s western Arctic coast, meaning better year-round access to essential goods, breaking the reliance of Kitikmeot communities on cargo planes that can have limited capacity and barges that are increasingly having trouble navigating the Mackenzie River due to climate change and don’t always make it to the Arctic Coast as you folks here in Cambridge Bay know well. wake up to a world of new career opportunities with the “Northern Jobs” section of the classifieds. www.nunavutnews.com

I truly believe that this project is timely right now because building an all-weather road to the Coronation Gulf beginning in Yellowknife will be a catalyst for the development of the rich mineral resources, both current deposits and future, from the very rich Slave geological province at a time when critical minerals are priorities for our federal government. It is this road and port that will be the vehicle for unlocking Nunavut’s ability to support a current priority of our federal government to supplying critical minerals through Canada’s critical minerals strategy. It is this strategy which could support production of critical minerals in Nunavut. Sometimes we have to move when, as they say, the ducks line up. Critical minerals needed for the green revolution and electric vehicles everyone is talking about is a card we can play in the Kitikmeot. Nunavut News will publish the second half of Patterson’s speech next week.

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