Preliminary work underway on High Arctic naval port
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 5, 2008 | 1:17 PM CT
CBC News
Defence officals plan to refurbish the former Nanisivik mine dock, seen in this August 2007 photo, into a naval port by 2015. (Patricia Bell/CBC)Officials with the Department of National Defence say they are moving ahead with plans to build a military deep-sea port in Nunavut's High Arctic, with a team surveying the site this summer.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the port one year ago this month, saying the military would refurbish an existing port at the former Nanisivik lead and zinc mine near Arctic Bay, Nunavut.
Putting a military deep-sea port at Nanisivik, as well as an army training centre in Resolute Bay, has been part of Harper's plan to ensure Canada's sovereignty and security in the North. Both sites are located near the eastern entrance of the Northwest Passage.
Currently, the former mine site has rudimentary docking platforms, a fuel tank farm and not much else.
On Aug. 10, 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced two military sites would be set up in Nanisivik and Resolute Bay, Nunavut. (CBC)Lt.-Cmdr. Clive Orford, the National Defence project manager for the Nanisivik naval facility, said the navy is looking at whether to rebuild the tank farm and add a few more features.
"We'll put a building on the site and probably a helicopter landing pad, fence off a little area for a secure compound, that sort of thing," Orford told CBC News.
"The fuel tank farm, which is presently in a shutdown state on the property, we may completely rebuild it. We may utilize some of the existing infrastructure."
Orford said a small environmental engineering team is at the Nanisivik site this summer, looking specifically for any residual contamination left over from the former mine.
Orford's project group currently has just under $5 million for the preliminary studies and engineering work. After that work is done, he said, he will ask the federal government for more funding to complete the project.
The deep-sea port is expected to be ready by the announced deadline of 2015. When it does become operational, Orford said, it will likely be a small seasonal facility.
"There will be in my early predictions, a small staff on site," he said. "The exact numbers, we really haven't determined that, but it won't be a large number of folk."
In announcing the Nanisivik port, Harper had said Arctic Bay residents will take part in the construction and operation of the site.
To date, hamlet workers in Arctic Bay said they have not heard about any new developments. But defence officials say they are looking forward to working with Nunavut residents in the near future.
