Nunavut hunters urge for reassessment as Baffinland eyes 2026 construction of Steensby rail

Baffinland Iron Mines is now looking at 2026 as a start date for its proposed expansion to an iron ore mine in Nunavut, but local hunters are calling for the project to be reassessed before it can go ahead.

The mining company wants to ship iron ore from its existing Mary River mine, by building a railway south to a proposed port at Steensby Inlet. 

It's a plan that was approved by the federal government in 2012. 

For years, it was put on the back burner with Baffinland favouring a railway to be built from the mine north to Milne Inlet — an option it said would be less costly. That was rejected by the federal government in 2022, causing Baffinland to switch back to the Steensby Inlet track.

But Judah Sarpinak, chair of Igloolik's hunters and trappers association, believes environmental conditions, and the climate, have changed a lot since the project was approved in 2012. 

Sarpinak wants a reassessment of the project before construction is allowed to begin. 

"The importance of substance hunting for Inuit has been going on ever since we can remember," Sarpinak said. 

Under federal law, a mining project in Nunavut must be reassessed if it hasn't begun within five years. 

But Eric Head, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, said the port and rail project falls under the wider Mary River project — which has commenced.

The federal government can order a reconsideration of an approved project if "the circumstances relating to the project are significantly different from those anticipated at the time the certificate was issued," he said in a written response. 

Losing hunting grounds

Sarpinak worries his community could lose precious hunting grounds if the project is allowed to continue. 

The railroad would have to cross permafrost, which he said could affect caribou migrating from their winter feeding grounds to spring calving grounds. 

Between 2014 and 2015, there was a moratorium on the hunting of Baffin Island caribou, which Sarpinak believes has skewed the outdated environmental assessments Baffinland is relying on for its Steensby Project. 

In an email to CBC, Baffinland spokesperson Peter Akman said it's done numerous baseline studies on caribou since 2006, with an aerial survey as recent as March 2023. 

"The environmental data and information is not outdated. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is valuable, rich information that does not have an expiry date," Akman said.

To address concerns with the operation of the rail line, Akman said there have been several mitigation measures, which "include the installation of ramps at areas where the railway will intersect a visible caribou trail".

Baffinland's use of baseline data for shipping it's already doing was also a point of contention with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. 

The Nunavut Impact Review Board's 2023 – 2024 annual monitoring report for the Mary River Project, released last month, stated DFO and QIA's concerns with Baffinland using 2013 baseline data for narwhal abundance estimates in Eclipse Sound, situated north of its Mary River mine.

In the report, it was recommended that Baffinland use 2004 data as its baseline, to compare narwhal stock with pre-project levels.

NIRB noted that project-related shipping in that area has been ongoing since 2006, and since there was a "significant increase in regional vessel traffic" since construction started in 2013. 

Consent an 'obligation'

Baffinland could start shipping year-round through the port at Steensby Inlet — and that also worries communities south of Igloolik. 

Sanirajak's hunters and trappers association chair, Paul Nagmalik, says walruses cross the waters near Steensby Inlet, as part of their migration to the Salliq (Southampton Island) area. 

"These walruses are sensitive and quickly draw away from noise. Even when they are not being hunted, they drift away quickly," he said. 

Warren Bernauer is an assistant professor of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba who's been assisting the Igloolik hunters and trappers association with its submissions.

He believes the federal government has an obligation to get consent from Inuit — rather than just community feedback — under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. Baffinland, he said, needs to do the same.

"They need to ask permission and that's not what they're doing," he said. 

"[Baffinland] can ship for almost the entire season, ice breaking through Steensby Inlet in their existing project certificate. The communities that I've spoken to want to reconsider this, that maybe that's too much shipping."

CIRNAC spokesperson Eric Head said the federal government has conducted two consultation tours, and continues to engage with Inuit organizations. 

Baffinland's Peter Akman also reiterated the multiple community consultations it's hosted, with information shared on multiple channels outside the meetings. 

Permits still required

Akman said the plan is to start construction as soon as financing for the expansion is finalized. 

There are still several federal authorizations required for Baffinland to begin that project — including a railway operating certificate that Transport Canada said it hasn't received an application for. 

The federal government also isn't ruling out amendments to the project. 

Head said a workshop conducted by NIRB has put forward several recommendations.

Among those is "an evaluation of the existing Mary River mine monitoring program to identify improvements and consider whether updates to existing project certificate terms and conditions … are needed to address concerns about potential cumulative effects."