Nanisivik Naval Facility set to open next year

Nearly a decade behind schedule, the Nanisivik Naval Facility near Arctic Bay is expected to begin operations next year.

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Gordon O’Connor, then-minister of national defence at site of what will become the Nanisivik Naval Facility on Aug. 10, 2007. (File photo)

The facility will be built on the site of the now-demolished mining town of Nanisivik, 20 kilometres from Arctic Bay.

For about one month of the year the facility will operate as a docking and refuelling hub for government vessels in the Arctic.

In addition to the deepwater port, it will include a jetty, or small pier where boats can be moored; fuel storage tanks for ships and helicopters; a site office; a wharf operator’s shelter; a storage building; and a helicopter landing pad.

The project was originally announced in 2007 by then-prime minister Stephen Harper, who said development of the Nanisivik Naval Facility will “significantly strengthen Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic.”

The Department of National Defence has spent $107.6 million to develop the the facility, with the final cost expected to reach $114.6 million, said Kened Sadiku, spokesperson for the department, in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

When the project was originally announced, the plan was to start operations in 2015. But construction delays moved that target to 2018.

It’s now expected to open in 2025, according to the auditor general’s report on Arctic Waters Surveillance from March 6, 2023.

The delays were due to harsh weather conditions, a short construction season in the Arctic and three years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, said Sadiku.

The name Nanisivik can be translated from Inuktitut as “the place where people find things.”

The original community was founded in 1975 to house about 300 people, mostly miners and their families who worked at the local zinc-lead mine.

Richard and Janet Armstrong at their home in Iqaluit with an example of zinc ore that they brought from Nanisivik, where they lived from 1976 to 1982. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)

Nanisivik had a deepwater port, as well as a school, grocery store, church, airport, swimming pool and library, plus a couple of stop signs that were barely needed as people rarely used cars, said Richard Armstrong, who worked at the mine from 1976 to 1982 and now lives in Iqaluit.

It also had modular houses with televisions and sewage-disposal — luxuries that weren’t available to many residents of Arctic Bay at the time.

Armstrong said it was a “successful experiment” as the northernmost mine in Canada at the time, and he still keeps in touch with his old co-workers.

“I still wish I could go back and see what happened to it,” he said.

After the mine closed in 2002, the people of Arctic Bay hoped the Nanisivik townsite would remain and be repurposed because of the amenities that were there.

But shortly afterward the residents left the community, houses were demolished and the Department of National Defence published plans to convert the land into a naval station.

Because of ice coverage, Nanisivik will operate as a refuelling station for four weeks per year starting in early August, so the Royal Canadian Navy’s ability to access the station and fuel will be limited, according to the auditor general’s report.

The report said National Defence is working to lengthen the operating season once “success and capabilities have been established with the current model.”