https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/
The project was approved more than a decade ago. Hunters say a lot has changed since then
Baffinland Iron Mines is now looking at 2026 as a start date for its proposed expansion to an iron ore mine in Nunavut, but local hunters are calling for the project to be reassessed before it can go ahead. The mining company wants to ship iron ore from its existing Mary River mine, by building a railway south to a proposed port at Steensby Inlet.
It’s a plan that was approved by the federal government in 2012. For years, it was put on the back burner with Baffinland favouring a railway to be built from the mine north to Milne Inlet — an option it said would be less costly. That was rejected by the federal government in 2022, causing Baffinland to switch back to the Steensby Inlet track.
But Judah Sarpinak, chair of Igloolik’s hunters and trappers association, believes environmental conditions, and the climate, have changed a lot since the project was approved in 2012. Sarpinak wants a reassessment of the project before construction is allowed to begin.”The importance of substance hunting for Inuit has been going on ever since we can remember,” Sarpinak said.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/baffinland-2026-steensby-hunters-reassessment-1.7498351