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Arctic resource port pressed by Northwest Territories premier
Gary Park
One of Canada’s most remote communities could become the gateway to Arctic resource riches.
Tuktoyaktuk, with fewer than 1,000 residents, sits on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, a natural site for a seaport if it could ever establish an overland link to Inuvik and south along the Mackenzie River Valley.
The tantalizing prospect of a highway connection stretching over 600 miles is now more than a pipe dream.
Northwest Territories Premier Joe Handley made a case to Canada’s provincial and territorial leaders last month to make the C$700 million transportation corridor a priority to accelerate the development of oil and gas, diamonds and minerals.
From a petroleum standpoint alone, the National Energy Board estimated the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Sea region has 9 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas and 52 tcf of undiscovered, while the Arctic Islands have 12 tcf of discovered and 28 tcf of undiscovered resources. Oil potential is rated in the billions of barrels. Open water a lure If recent climate patterns continue the Arctic Ocean is being eyed as a new route from Canada to Asia and Europe, cutting 5,000 miles from established sea links. As open water season in the Arctic Ocean grows longer, the once-frozen barrier is being lowered.
Handley wants to take advantage of those changing conditions by making Tuktoyaktuk a deepwater port.
The more Canada uses the waters as a trading route the more it can fend off claims from — notably the United States — that the ocean is an international waterway.
He said global warming will open the way for more foreign ships to use what is known as the Northwest Passage.
The pressure is on Canada to “assert its sovereignty … and show that we are exercising control,” Handley said.
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