CHARS looks to 2012 federal budget for construction money

With the hope of seeing a gold mine at nearby Hope Bay faded, people in Cambridge Bay are looking the Canadian High Arctic Research Station to give their community a boost. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Uncertainty over how much money the federal government will set aside for the future Canadian High Arctic Station could see the promised facility shrink.

The design proposals for the Canadian High Arctic Research in Cambridge Bay are in.

But it’s still not certain yet how much money the 2012 budget, expected in the last week of March, will earmark for the estimated $81-million construction cost and operating budget for CHARS, which is supposed to open in 2017.

That’s the latest news about CHARS, shared by John Kozji, director general of northern policy and science at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, who spoke earlier this week to delegates at the Kitikmeot Trade Show in Cambridge Bay.

The 2012 budget will “give a sense of the size of the footprint for the station and its research program,” Kozji said.

But with money hard to come by, it looks like CHARS could end up being smaller than originally proposed.

The $18 million for design phase for the project was set aside in 2010, with the Request for Proposals announced last September.

The “design exercise” for the facility is already behind schedule — the five top designers were to have visited Cambridge Bay in December, with a final selection taking place by the end of the year.

That didn’t happen.

The RFP only closed this past week, so now the two-stage approach to selecting the designer for CHARS can start, behind schedule.

The first stage will evaluate the proponents’ professional experience and expertise in consultancy work, while the second stage will involve the evaluation of the approaches for the design of CHARS.

The final selection of the design consultant and the awarding of a contract should have been made in 2011, according to the CHARS feasibility study, with construction to move ahead with design and construction tenders this year.

That original project schedule says a designer was to deliver a final design for the facility, estimated between 6,500 square metres and 8,500 square metres for the summer of 2014.

The scope of the facility could now change depending on the amount of money set aside in the 2012 budget.

As for the designer, a public works committee will look at the proposals.

Kozji said they’ll favour a “cost-flexible solution,” that is, one that can adapt to the money available for construction.

A jury panel will then review the designs.

The design of the CHARS was to incorporate laboratory space, offices, workshops, accommodations, dining and food preparation facilities, and a recreation area in flexible modules.

The design was also to include the use of green technologies, “create a welcoming environment that acknowledges Aboriginal peoples’ knowledge and experience in the North,” and support partnerships between western science and traditional knowledge.

No matter what CHARS ends up looking like, the facility will be integrated into the community, Kozji said.

“We don’t want this facility to be isolated,” he said.

The construction of CHARS is expected to bring 400 jobs to the community, with 35 to 70 people hired on later.

The mandate of CHARS also appears flexible, but it’s to focus on science and technology — however, one of its anticipated major partners in the private sector, Newmont Mining Corp., has now backed away from developing the Hope Bay gold mine project near Cambridge Bay.

The final site for CHARS within Cambridge Bay hasn’t been settled on yet either.