GN touts Kimmirut, not Iqaluit, as deep-sea port site

A transportation scheme that was apparently laughed out of existence three years ago is still a “priority” for the Government of Nunavut: a deep-sea port at Kimmirut connected to Iqaluit by an expensive, 160-kilometre all-weather road.

In a cabinet document leaked last week to Nunatsiaq News, it’s reported that Olayuk Akesuk, Nunavut’s transportation minister, last month told the federal transportation minister, that Nunavut’s deep-sea port priority for the south Baffin continues to be a deep-sea port at Kimmirut, not Iqaluit.

The document, entitled “Nunavut Awareness Lobby Effort” and dated May 18, was prepared by David Omilgoitok, the deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs, part of the EIA department that reports to Premier Paul Okalik.

The document describes a major lobby effort in Ottawa that the Nunavut cabinet organized May 16, with the help of the lobbying firm Hill and Knowlton.

Premier Paul Okalik, five Nunavut cabinet ministers, and various Nunavut deputy ministers hosted a lunch at the parliamentary restaurant in Ottawa and held face-to-face meetings with their federal counterparts.

In one of those meetings, Akesuk sat down with Lawrence Cannon, the federal transport minister. Omilgoitok’s report records the meeting this way:

“1. Deep Sea Ports Funding — Minister Akesuk advised the federal Minister and his officials that the priority for a deep sea port for the South Baffin continues to be deep sea port Kimmirut. [sic] This would include a road from the city of Iqaluit to the port location near Kimmirut.”

The report does not mention the $50-million deep-sea port proposal that the City of Iqaluit developed last year, and has been lobbying for since.

When the GN began work on the Iqaluit-Kimmirut port-road scheme in 2002 and 2003, the City of Iqaluit’s economic development committee dumped on the idea.

They said that punching an all-weather road through the rugged mountains and river valleys of the Meta Incognita Peninsula would cost far more money that it would be worth.

“The cost to construct and maintain a road for the number of months and in the condition that would be required for truck transport was considered to be far in excess of its potential benefits,” the Iqaluit committee said in a letter to the GN.

And when Iqaluit councillor Glenn Williams ran for election in the fall of 2003, he dismissed the Iqaluit-Kimmirut port-road proposal as a preposterous joke.

“When I first heard about that I thought it was an April Fool’s joke. We can’t even afford to keep the road open between Nanisivik and Arctic Bay. How are we going to keep the road open between Iqaluit and Kimmirut?” Williams told Nunatsiaq News in his election campaign.

In an interview this week, Akesuk confirmed that he did meet Lawrence Cannon on May 16.

And he said that his “priority” is a port for Nunavut, no matter where it’s located.

“My priority is getting a port for Nunavut, whether it is Iqaluit or Kimmirut. I will support whatever the federal government wants,” Akesuk said.

Akesuk added that his meeting with Cannon, his first since the Tory government was elected earlier this year, was a “good start,” and gave him a chance to talk to his federal counterpart about Nunavut’s needs.

Also on May 16, Ed Picco, the MLA for Iqaluit East, held a separate meeting with Gordon O’Connor, the minister of national defence. Iqaluit’s mayor, Elisapee Sheutiapik, and Iqaluit’s deputy mayor, Glenn Williams, were among those who attended that meeting.

When contacted this week, Picco said he absolutely would not comment on a cabinet document, “which may or may not exist.”

But Picco said that in the meeting with O’Connor, which he attended in his capacity as an Iqaluit MLA and not as a Nunavut cabinet minister, O’Connor was still positive about the idea of a port for Iqaluit.

The City of Iqaluit’s campaign for a deep sea port got serious last year when they hired Aarluk Consulting to study the idea and produce a report that could be used for lobbying purposes in the last federal election campaign.

That report, issued in the fall of 2005, estimates that a deep water port could be built at Innuit Head, past the end of the causeway, for about $50 million.

Not long after, Tory election promises that suggest they are eyeing Iqaluit as a naval port added more to Iqaluit’s optimism.

When contacted this week, just before Nunatsiaq News press-time, for comment on the city’s current position on the issue, Glenn Williams said that he and the mayor have just returned from the annual meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Montreal, and need time to discuss a response.

Williams said the city will likely respond next week.