The Arctic

[Cloud Cover]

Gleaming stuff from the comments, they seemed to have surmised that the government would give them what they wanted, regardless of the local opposition and then spent heavily on that assumption, with it now coming back to bite them. They also have another project in the works, but now no capital to see it through. Sounds a bit like poor senior management decision making.

The lender and investors seems to be particularly naive in this project as well. They aren’t getting their money back either.

 

[lenaitch]

The world, including Canada, is peppered with ghost or struggling communities that were founded resource sites - the so-called 'one industry town'. The day a mine shift is christened, its shut-down clock starts. A few, very few, like Sudbury and Timmins, are rich enough to be stable over a long-term. Expecting a durable, economically viable community based on a single mine is folly.

Admittedly, the rules regarding what constitutes and justifies a community in the high arctic are different, but the Inuit have fairly recent memory of being relocated for the greater good. Maybe Milne Point is a better location than Pond Inlet ~130km away. Dunno.

 

[YZT580]

The world, including Canada, is peppered with ghost or struggling communities that were founded resource sites - the so-called 'one industry town'. The day a mine shift is christened, its shut-down clock starts. A few, very few, like Sudbury and Timmins, are rich enough to be stable over a long-term. Expecting a durable, economically viable community based on a single mine is folly.

Admittedly, the rules regarding what constitutes and justifies a community in the high arctic are different, but the Inuit have fairly recent memory of being relocated for the greater good. Maybe Milne Point is a better location than Pond Inlet ~130km away. Dunno.

Wasn't the intent of the change in access infrastructure to provide for a longer shipping season? Hard for a mine to be profitable if its access route is shut down for 5 or more months a year. On a side note, with 14 Liberal MPs signing a letter criticizing Carney's position on the Alberta pipeline it would seem that there is opposition within government to any form of development that would push against the first nation rights to preserve things exactly as they are: provided we pay for new wells and other infrastructure: things that are needed and overdue but that cause lots of people to put them in the same category as the chap with the dog and the guitar on the street corner. And this viewpoint would appear to be supported by the courts.

 

[Kirkhill]

The world, including Canada, is peppered with ghost or struggling communities that were founded resource sites - the so-called 'one industry town'. The day a mine shift is christened, its shut-down clock starts. A few, very few, like Sudbury and Timmins, are rich enough to be stable over a long-term. Expecting a durable, economically viable community based on a single mine is folly.

Admittedly, the rules regarding what constitutes and justifies a community in the high arctic are different, but the Inuit have fairly recent memory of being relocated for the greater good. Maybe Milne Point is a better location than Pond Inlet ~130km away. Dunno.

Historically many modern cities started off as single purpose "colonies" - mines, trading posts, military forts...

Many of them died off, as you say. Some of them established secondary communities that served the primary one and found a way to become self-supporting.

My homeland is replete with Casters and Chesters, Wichs and Burghs that all started as spots on a road.

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Gleaming stuff from the comments, they seemed to have surmised that the government would give them what they wanted, regardless of the local opposition and then spent heavily on that assumption, with it now coming back to bite them. They also have another project in the works, but now no capital to see it through. Sounds a bit like poor senior management decision making.

The mine has been in operation since 2014. The ore itself is the purest in the World. It does not need to be refined and their are no tailing ponds so it can be taken right out of the ground and shipped as is.

The success of the project is entirely dependent on getting the supply chain sorted though. The Company had to spend the $$$ because the lead times on the equipment they are acquiring to make a go of this are significant. A simple example is new locomotive builds. Company bought 8 new locomotives. Locomotives from GE have a 2 year lead time on them from initial purchase to acquisition of the asset.

It's not as simple as just turning the tap on and off at will.

 

[The Bread Guy]

In other arctic news …

US Air Force Awards $40 Million Contract to Sustain Aging Arctic Radar Network

The US Air Force has awarded a $40 million contract to replace aging radomes protecting key radars in Canada’s North Warning System, bolstering NORAD’s Arctic early-warning capabilities against emerging threats.

thedefensewatch.com

 

[FJAG]

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere. Interesting to see the US is part of it.

Joint Statement on Arctic Security from the Arctic Allies: Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States of America​

Joint Statement on Arctic Security from the Arctic Allies: Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United States of America

Press Release

www.truenorthstrategicreview.ca

And this:

Minister McGuinty announces $816 million investment to strengthen Canada’s maritime security​

Press Releases + Noah Note​

Minister McGuinty announces $816 million investment to strengthen Canada’s maritime security

Press Releases + Noah Note

www.truenorthstrategicreview.ca

 

[YZT580]

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere. Interesting to see the US is part of it.





And this:

unless they are changing the coast guard mandate, that is a whole lot of 1.5% and a big fat zero on the 2 to 3.5 scale.. They still can't seem to connect guns with defense.

 

[lenaitch]

Historically many modern cities started off as single purpose "colonies" - mines, trading posts, military forts...

Many of them died off, as you say. Some of them established secondary communities that served the primary one and found a way to become self-supporting.

My homeland is replete with Casters and Chesters, Wichs and Burghs that all started as spots on a road.

Really. You mean to tell us that London hasn't been 9Mn people all along? Who knew.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Not sure if this is posted elsewhere. Interesting to see the US is part of it.





And this:

Ok, so 816m over 7yrs. That breaks down at about 115m/yr.
That 115m is spread across the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the St Lawrence and finally the Arctic.
Let’s see, that translates to be 10m/yr for the East Coast and 10m for the West Coast and 10m for the Great Lakes and 10m for the St Lawrence. That leaves 75m for the whole of the Arctic, per yr for the next 7yrs.
Put it another way, each Canadian just ponied up a large Tim’s coffee and a plain bagel with butter, each year for the next 7yrs to improve ‘Arctic’ security delivered by the CCG.

 

[Ludoc]

Ok, so 816m over 7yrs. That breaks down at about 115m/yr.
That 115m is spread across the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the St Lawrence and finally the Arctic.
Let’s see, that translates to be 10m/yr for the East Coast and 10m for the West Coast and 10m for the Great Lakes and 10m for the St Lawrence. That leaves 75m for the whole of the Arctic, per yr for the next 7yrs.
Put it another way, each Canadian just ponied up a large Tim’s coffee and a plain bagel with butter, each year for the next 7yrs to improve ‘Arctic’ security delivered by the CCG.

$75m divided by 41m Canadians is about $1.83.

It's been a while since I have visited Tim's but I don't think that would even get you a large coffee, never mind the bagel.

 

[YZT580]

$75m divided by 41m Canadians is about $1.83.

It's been a while since I have visited Tim's but I don't think that would even get you a large coffee, never mind the bagel.

the important thing is that it sounds good

 

[Czech_pivo]

$75m divided by 41m Canadians is about $1.83.

It's been a while since I have visited Tim's but I don't think that would even get you a large coffee, never mind the bagel.

I was basing it off the 115m/yr

 

[Furniture]

unless they are changing the coast guard mandate, that is a whole lot of 1.5% and a big fat zero on the 2 to 3.5 scale.. They still can't seem to connect guns with defense.

The key to engaging enemies is knowing where they are, that doesn't take an armed system outside of open war. Adding CCG sensors to the CAF/GoC MDA is a massive step towards defending our maritime approaches. This is the unsexy work done by staff in Ottawa that gets dismissed by people who don't know enough to know what they don't know.

As an example, at this time a CCG ship getting a radar or AIS hit on a random ship in the arctic doesn't necessarily get looked at past the bridge crew of that CCG ship. With the planned improvements, that data gets sent via a data link to a Maritime Security Operations Centre (MSOC) to be analyzed by Int folks from the CAF, and OGDs. That data helps build the overall picture of what is happening our waters(MDA), and drives the decisions to send guns or not.