Who benefits from the Arctic economic and security corridor? It depends who you ask

Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.

Amidst the decline in mining in the Northwest Territories, Tłı̨chǫ grand chief Jackson Lafferty sees an opportunity to benefit from the project that crosses Tłı̨chǫ land. Alongside the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Tłı̨chǫ government signed a memorandum of understanding in November to jointly lead the project from the N.W.T. side. 

“[The] last 25 years, the diamond mines came and it was on their terms, and they told us what to do and how it's going to be laid out. Now it's on our terms,” said Lafferty. 

The corridor has been cited as a potential project for fast-tracking by the federal government. It would include the construction of a deep-water port at Grays Bay in Nunavut, to handle navy vessels as well as large cargo ships capable of loading and transporting materials from future critical mineral mines in both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. 

A 230-kilometre all-weather road would connect the port to Jericho Station in Nunavut, home to a defunct diamond mine, and from there to a winter road to Yellowknife.

Lafferty says he’s already in talks with key stakeholders in Ottawa and overseas. He also sees the project as a way to connect the remote communities of Gamètı̀ and Wekweètì, N.W.T., to the rest of the territory by road. 

The nearest community to Grays Bay is Kugluktuk, Nunavut, situated about 200 kilometres away from the proposed port. The West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. is the proponent of the project on the Nunavut side. 

CEO Brendan Bell says the Grays Bay location was among very few options that had access to tidewater, which is key to accommodating large ships, and there were no Nunavut communities nearby with that level of accessibility. But he still believes there will be benefits to hamlets in the Kitikmeot region. 

“Large ocean-going vessels can come in, be broken down into smaller size barges, which will then go where they can be accepted or accommodated at Kugluktuk and at Cambridge Bay. So if you think about building materials or seasonal resupply, this is access that those communities have not had to tidewater in the past,” he said. 

Amanda Dumond, the manager of the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO), isn’t sold on the benefits of the project.

Given the distance to the community, she worries most of the jobs will be short-term, rotational work, which can be especially difficult on families. 

“Look at existing projects around the North, including some mineral exploration camps or even some existing mines, they can't even fill to capacity,” she said. 

Bell feels differently about the employment prospects for Nunavummiut, and looks to Yellowknife as an analogue. 

“The Ekati, the Diavik, the Gahcho Kué mines are clearly not in the City of Yellowknife. But the economic benefits to communities in the neighbourhood, if you will, have been profound,” he said.