‘Mini celebration’ before lengthy review process for Grays Bay project

The Grays Bay road and port project is set to begin a lengthy regulatory process now that the Nunavut Impact Review Board has accepted a revised version of its impact statement.

“We had a mini celebration but recognize that there’s a lot more work to come,” said Brendan Bell, CEO of West Kitikmeot Resources Corp., the company behind the proposal, in an interview Monday.

The impact statement is a nearly 8,000-page document, presented in English, Inuktitut, Inuinaqtun and French.

It outlines environmental research on how the project’s 230-kilometre road and deepsea port, as well as proposed surrounding mining developments that would be made accessible by the project, could impact the territory’s economy, communities and environment.

The company’s original impact statement was rejected in March over what Bell describes as a mix of formatting issues and missing scientific information.

“We were asked to provide some summaries and put some material in front of the regulator on a number of aspects with respect to caribou, marine mammals and some other things like that,” Bell said.

The board accepted the revised impact statement on May 6 and has posted a timeline for the next steps.

They include a period starting in June for question and comment submissions; a 60-day technical review review starting in August; and meetings in the fall for Kitikmeot communities, Yellowknife and Inuvik.

Bell said he’s hoping the timeline puts the project in a place where the review board could have a recommendation ready in early 2027, with a federal decision following later that year.

For now, the timeline makes things “feel very real,” Bell said, as he and his team seek to secure funding for the project, which is expected to cost $1 billion.

“Hopefully, we’ll have some more interesting updates for you shortly.”