Naujaat hunters want regulators to rethink Steensby approval

Naujaat hunters are threatening to go to court over an approved railway expansion and deepsea port planned for Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Mary River Mine. 

“Litigation is certainly a possibility,” said James Gunvaldsen Klaassen, managing lawyer with Ecojustice, an environmental law charity with offices across southern Canada.

He made the comments at a news conference his organization staged Friday on Apex beach in Iqaluit, with representatives from Naujaat’s, Igloolik’s and Sanirajak’s hunters and trappers organizations.

“There’s a lot of information out there that has not been communicated to Naujaat,” Gunvaldsen Klaassen said. “They’ve been frozen out of these discussions.”

Naujaat is located about 500 kilometres southwest of Steensby Inlet, where a deepsea port and 149-kilometre rail line would allow Baffinland to increase iron ore production to 22 million tonnes per year from the current 4.2 million tonnes per year. 

The hunters’ main concern is that increased marine traffic might affect caribou and marine mammals, said John Ell-Tinashlu, chair of Naujaat’s Arviq Hunters and Trappers Association.

Railway construction is expected to begin later this year, with substantial completion in approximately three years.

“Baffinland has all key regulatory authorizations required to begin construction of the Steensby,” said Baffinland spokesperson Peter Akman in an email Friday. “The project has also been the subject of significant baseline studies, monitoring and regulatory review and key approvals remain in place.”

As for the alleged lack of consultation with Naujaat hunters, Akman said these concerns should be addressed with the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

“The Arviq HTO has never reached out to Baffinland for a meeting,” Akman said. “And we have met with the Igloolik and Sanirajak HTOs 48 times since 2023.”

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout told Nunatsiaq News in January that she believes the Steensby project should undergo another environmental assessment so that approval can be an “informed decision.” She represented the NDP at the time, but since crossed the floor to join the governing Liberal party in March.

In an email to Nunatsiaq News on Friday, she reaffirmed her support for “the views of the hunters and trappers’ associations who are the experts and the rights holders in Nunavut.”

“If their view is that another environmental assessment is necessary, I agree with them,” she wrote. “Indeed, it may be a requirement, and I will be looking into this further.”

For Ell-Tinashlu’s part, he is focusing his criticism at the federal government for shutting his community out of initial consultations back in 2012.

“This project is one that will impact our lives and our reliance on country food,” Ell-Tinashlu said, speaking in Inuktitut through an interpreter.

Meanwhile, Naujaat hunters remain hopeful that federal policymakers will listen to their concerns, said their lawyer.

“The next step will be to begin some conversations with the Government of Canada, which will at least allow Naujaat to communicate their concerns,” Gunvaldsen Klaassen said. “The ball is in the government’s court as to whether those concerns are listened to and whether they are accommodated.”

Baffinland currently employs 1,200 workers across Nunavut, including the mine site, port operations, marine, logistics and support staff.