Conservation group asks court to review ‘scope’ of Grays Bay project
Impact of shipping, trucking in ‘sensitive region’ needs closer look, says Oceans North
The Oceans North Conservation Society is seeking a judicial review of the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s assessment of the road and port project to Grays Bay, pictured here. (Photo courtesy of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp.)
A marine conservation organization is seeking a judicial review of the Grays Bay Road and Port project assessment, citing a need to better examine how increased trucking and shipping will impact the surrounding environment.
Oceans North Conservation Society, a Canadian non-profit, filed its request with the Federal Court of Canada on March 2.
It’s important to “ensure the impact assessment is set up correctly from the outset,” said Hilu Tagoona, the organization’s vice-president of partnerships and engagement.
West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., the project’s proponent, is going through the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s assessment process as it seeks approval for its proposed deepsea port on Grays Bay, about 170 kilometres east of Kugluktuk, and a 230-kilometre road inland to connect with the road network in the Northwest Territories.
The project aims to provide access for mineral exploration and serve civilian and military purposes to enhance Arctic security.
“Our point is that if a major road and port are going to move forward in a sensitive region, the assessment has to look at the full picture — especially the trucking and shipping the project is meant to enable — and put strong safeguards in place from the start,” Tagoona said.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board’s executive director Dionne Filiatrault said it’s “not uncommon” for groups to file judicial review requests related to projects. The Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act allows people to make such requests.
Oceans North is filing a judicial review request in response to the review board issuing the project’s “scope.”
Filiatrault described that stage in the process as being like a “recipe” list of what information the proponent needs to include in its environmental assessment.
“We do take the matter seriously and we’re actively working to ensure that the facts are clear and accurate,” Filiatrault said.
Filiatrault said the board is not one of the respondents in Oceans North’s filing. The two respondents are West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. and the Attorney General of Canada.
Brendan Bell, CEO of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., said he would not on the request while it is before the courts but in an interview offered his thoughts on the assessment process generally.
“We anticipate as we go forward, there will be southern interests, sometimes foreign-funded southern interests,” he said. “They will just find it hard to believe that northern institutions, northern governments can possibly review projects and make recommendations on them adequately.
“I categorically reject that. I think northerners have the most at stake here and are the most determined to get it right.”
The Grays Bay project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, has the backing of the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Grays Bay Road and Port project would be referred to the federal government’s Major Projects Office, created last year to fast-track infrastructure projects of national importance.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board is waiting for West Kitikmeot Resources to submit a modified environmental impact statement, after the company’s first version was missing some information.
Organizations such as Oceans North could arguably play an important role in environmental oversight. However, in the Nunavut context, I grow more and more concerned that oceans north interventions can at times rely heavily on precautionary or worst-case scenarios, without equal consideration of the socio-economic realities facing communities.
In a region where infrastructure gaps, food security, and employment remain critical challenges, there must be a better balance between environmental protection and responsible development. Regulatory processes should ensure that all perspectives—including community economic priorities—are weighed equitably, and that participation adds value rather than prolongs decision-making without clear benefit.
Care to explain how the Grays Bay road and port addresses community economic priorities for Kitikmeot?
Royalties from the mines?
The Inuit Orgs get penny’s on the dollar for extraction if they are lucky. Ask QIA and NTI how much they’ve made from Baffinland. There are already 2 operational mines in the Kitikmeot…
Employment?
Inuit Employment at the mines, especially in the Kitikmeot region, is extremely low. Most positions filled by Inuit are entry level positions with low salaries. It’s safe to assume this would continue to be true should the project be approved.
To the judicial review itself, I’d like to see the arguments being made by Oceans North. The process is much different than any other jurisdiction. The NIRB creates and defines the scope of the assessment under Article 12, so it would have made sense if they were respondent.
Good morning Community Economic Priorities,
Well I just did a quick search. Over the past 10 years since the signing of the IIBA QIA has received tens of millions of dollars from Baffinland. Baffinland made an initial 20 million dollar advanced payment and millions more in royalties. The agreement includes a 1.25 million quarterly payment at a 1.19% royalty on net sales revenue.
a 2020 agreement estimated payment worth over 1 billion dollars to Inuit over the life of the mine. Hardly penny’s as you describe.
Have a look at QIA Legacy Fund and remind me where all that money came from?
Does Ocean North even have an office in nunavut or do they just look out for the best interest of Nunavut from their ivory towers in Ottawa and Toronto,?
With interference from group like this from Never Land, Canadians in general don’t appear to give a damn, younger generation in Nunavut have to be considered how their future is shaped. Will they be forever be children of the governments or take the bull by the horns and determine their own future? Let Nunavut consider their own fate. Do gooders are more interested in donations coming to them at the expense of Nunavummiut (in general, don’t give a damn). We have to be listen to by Nunavut IPGs rather that what someone from far away lands is saying..
Ocean’s North is listed as a charity. On their website. Charity # 720704295RR0001
Are there restrictions on lobbying for charities? and, how transparent do they need to be on where their funds are coming from?
Their 2024 Annual report outlines Funders, which include some Federal Departments, as well as Funded Partners, which includes some Inuit Associations and some of the Hunters and Trappers committees, and a whole list of others.
How do they protect against outside influences from other governments or agencies outside of Canada?
What a waste of funds no connections to nunavut communities from grays bay to yellownife at a $billion bux poor board memder asii no different in baffin island and inuit organizations
The only reason to request a judicial review before an environmental impact assessment has even occurred (a quasi-judicial review in and of itself under Part 5 of Article 12) is because Oceans North couldn’t care less about the economic growth and sustainability of Nunavut – of which can be achieved in tandem with environmental protection via responsible management – that, and they needed something to raise more money for themselves. These people are the worst.
Develop the north, In hundred years none of us will be around. I adjusted from the 60s to today. I am sure the future generations will adjust regardless the conditions they would be at. By then their respiratory and their bodies would be adjusted to smog and other junk we consider toxic today.
Proper environmental protection can insure economic benefits. When development is prioritized, you risk an Exxon Valdez scenario. Both the environment and economic development can benefit from proper planning
As I said in an earlier post, our organizations are infiltrated with anti-development people. They feed information to people like Hilu Tagoona of Oceans North and Paul Okalik of WWF. Now you see plain and simple that Oceans North will try to find every way to stall, delay and end the project before it even starts. Hilu Tagoona and Paul Okalik are the Inuit puppets that have never created 1 job for Nunavummiut. How many jobs has the wager bay park created? how many jobs for thousands of square kilometers of land that we gave up? for 5-10 jobs? Pitiful. We have 2 million square kilometers of land and they are concerned about our first major road construction project in Nunavut? They oppose for the sake of opposition; they get paid every 2 weeks to oppose progress for a Territory that needs job and business opportunities. The problem is that we need smart people to negotiate the right deals for us. At the end of the day, we get what we negotiate.
WELL SAID AVRAM !!!!!!
Oceans North, according to their 2024 Annual Report, receives funding from large American groups such as Pew Charitable Trust, Wyss Foundation, Sobrato Family Foundation, Oceans5, Oceankind, Ocean Conservancy, National Philanthropic Trust, Great Island Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the ClimateWorks Foundation.
Oceans North is also funded by the international organizations, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and Blue Nature Alliance plus the UK based Becht Foundation.
Only 6 Canadian funding organizations support Oceans North.
Included in Canadian funders of Oceans North is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. DFO is publicly funded, and a regulatory party to the Nunavut NIRB process, and part of the government that has just made this project a national priority in the public interest.
Exactly why is Nunavut and Canada allowing a foreign funded organization standing in our regulatory affairs? Why is DFO working both ends of the EA process here, both as a regulator, and as an intervenor?
Environmentalists received big paychecks to stall progress in Nunavut. They’re not in their positions for the love of the land and it’s ppl. It’s all about $$$. I like an estimate of their yearly salary…. It would be nothing short of huge.
Oceans North and their ilk get PAID to stall and protest against any and all development across the North. The longer and more drawn out – the more they get to guarantee a fat juicy paycheck. It’s fodder for more high class fund raisers at elite gatherings. It’s all a big facade and charade. These people care zero about Nunavut, its people, or the wildlife. They care about getting rich.
Anyone remember the film: Chasing Unicorns? LMAO a direct look into privileged excess – fuelled by brain-washed donation money, sex, and drugs. Oceans North and the PEW Foundation have effectively scrubbed it from existence now – but if you look hard enough you will find it. Shocking behaviour.
Shame on any Inuit who get seduced by these organizations. Blinded by money to turn their backs on their communities.
Developing resources is a ticket to prosperity but not at environmental expense. Alberta waxes on how it produces more oil every year and yet does nothing for the environment. Nunavut think twice. Grays Bay road seems more for mining companies than Inuit.