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“Our vision is to have all of the employees Inuit, why not?”
You might say that Nunavut’s economy has a lot of “untapped potential,” as Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna said April 4 at the opening of the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit. And, while Canada’s economy has stalled, Nunavut’s future looks bright, Taptuna told an audience of several hundred gathered for the 20th annual mining conference.
But, true to this year’s theme of “Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the future,” there’s still much needed to move Nunavut’s resource industry ahead. Chief among concerns was Nunavut’s lack of infrastructure, an issue raised by Taptuna and other speakers during the first session of the three-day event, which included the presidents of two of Nunavut’s three operating mines.
That deficiency, Taptuna said, could be remedied in part by the Grays Bay Port and road project. Its promoters, the GN and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, plan to file a proposal with the Nunavut Impact Review Board later this year, Taptuna said.
The Grays Bay project, about 179 kilometres east of Kugluktuk and about 850 km north of Yellowknife, would include a deep water port and a road to service mines and link to the Northwest Territories.
The full development of that Coronation Gulf-Yellowknife transport corridor would require federal spending of $1.89 billion and could lead to an estimated $39.49 billion in resource development expenditures.
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