August 8, 2007
Harper visit suggests old mine site to be home to new Arctic military port
By BOB WEBER, The Canadian Press
(CP) - Suggestions that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit a remote site on the north tip of Baffin Island Friday is fuelling speculation that Canada's new Arctic military port will be located on the site of a former mine.
The dock at the Nanisivik mine, located near the eastern gateway to the Northwest Passage, remains in regular use and can easily accommodate large vessels, said Robert Carreau of Breakwater Resources, which operated the mine until shutting it in 2001.
"It's a bona fide deepwater port," he said, capable of handling vessels of at least 50,000-tonne capacity.
The dock was built in 1974 by federal funds and has been used ever since to move supplies and ore concentrate from Breakwater's lead-zinc mine. The Coast Guard has also used it as a refuelling station.
Breakwater and the Coast Guard still use the dock.
"It's in fairly good shape," said Mike Hecimovich of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which owns the site.
Infrastructure in place includes the dock, a breakwater and a functioning tank farm that used to store fuel for the mine. A nearby airstrip capable of handling planes up to the size of a 737 is also in regular use by the nearby community of Arctic Bay.
The government of Nunavut, which currently owns the airstrip, is decommissioning it while it builds a replacement but the old one is still useable, said spokesman Methusalah Kunuk.
"We try to maintain it to a minimum standard," he said.
The airstrip includes a small terminal and cargo facility.
Military planners have been eyeing the Nanisivik site, tucked away in the sheltered Strathcona Sound, since at least spring 2006.
"They were pleased we wouldn't be on the open ocean," Carreau said.
Although the port has tides as high as five metres, its ice-free season is long for such a high latitude.
The waters are ice-free from July to the end of September, said Carreau. With icebreaking support, the port is useable from May into October.
Nanisivik used to be an entire company mining town, but those buildings are being gradually demolished and removed from the site. Arctic Bay residents had hoped to move some of those buildings to their community, but years of tailings dust from the mine left them too contaminated with lead to use.
Breakwater is currently in the second year of its reclamation plan and expects to complete it by the end of next summer, said Carl McLean of Indian and Northern Affairs.
Little of the infrastructure from the town or the mine will remain, but the military isn't expected to have to replace much. The navy just needs a place where it can safely refuel and resupply, as well as move soldiers on-and offshore.
Nanisivik is one of several areas that have been considered for the port, which Harper promised to build during the last federal election.
Harper is currently on a three-day tour of the Arctic.
On Wednesday, he added about 5,000 square kilometres to the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories, fulfilling a pledge made by two environment ministers. Thursday, he is scheduled to visit the community of Resolute, which some say will become the site of a new winter warfare school.
Like Nanisivik, Resolute already boasts some federal infrastructure - the Polar Shelf research facility, owned by Natural Resources Canada.
Estimates suggest using that facility during the winter, when it's empty of the researchers that occupy it in the summer, would cost about $500,000 a year. Building from scratch could cost up to $20 million.
Although Harper's trip has been planned for months, the recent visit to the sea floor under the North Pole by a Russian submarine has given his announcements greater prominence.
The military is also in the middle of Arctic maneouvres in the waters off Baffin Island's southern coast.
). When the mine was in operation, large cargo ships would dock there from May to Oct. With ice breaking capability it would could be a yr round port.
