http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
Government of Nunavut pulls out of project that would connect proposed deep-water port to diamond mines
The Nunavut government has pulled its resources out of the Grays Bay Road and Port Project, after its request for federal funding to cover three-quarters of the estimated $527-million price tag was denied by Ottawa last week.
The proposed project is a 227-kilometre all-season road to connect a proposed deep-water port at Grays Bay — on the Northwest Passage between Bathurst Inlet and Kugluktuk — to the winter road that services the N.W.T.’s diamond mines. It’s one of Nunavut and Northwest Territories’ richest areas in minerals.
The project has the potential to create 2,250 full-time equivalent jobs in Nunavut and contribute $665 million to the territory’s mining operation revenues, according to a January 2018 economic assessment report.
Nunavut’s Economic Development and Transportation Minister Joe Savikataaq said the government didn’t get a reason why the funding was denied, other than it didn’t fit the scope of the parameters of the funding pool.
The government was seeking money from Transport Canada’s National Trade Corridors Fund — a $2 billion pool of money over 11 years, of which $400 million was set aside for trade and transportation infrastructure in the territories.
For the rest of this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/grays-bay-project-funding-denied-1.4620802