Few details, and no clear timeline, on Iqaluit's $85M port

It's now up to the Nunavut government to take the lead on building a small craft harbour and a deep water port in Iqaluit. That's if the legislature approves the plan, and if the federal money announced yesterday is still in place after the election.

"It'd be nice to see something like this started by 2017 with hopefully a completion by 2018," said Pauloosie Suvega, the territory's deputy minister of Transportation, the department that will take the lead on the project.

But that timeline seems ambitious. 

The federal government's announcement Thursday that it will kick in $63.7 million towards the port was based on a "preliminary project proposal," Suvega said. 

It could take up to a year to produce a more detailed plan, Suvega said, including a geotechnical assessment, habitat studies and consultations with stakeholders, including businesses, boaters and government agencies that have jurisdiction over water. "We can't go out and build something that may not necessarily suit the needs of the public."

All that would be followed by an environmental assessment, likely run by the Nunavut Impact Review Board.

Suvega acknowledged getting the work done by 2018 is likely optimistic.

"Construction could probably take about three to four years," he said. 

But none of that will get started until the Nunavut legislature approves the project — not a given in a territory where Iqaluit has only four MLAs, compared to 18 from other communities around the territory, none of whom would directly benefit from the port.

Suvega, speaking on CBC Nunavut's morning show Qulliq Friday, pointed to one way that cutting down the time it takes ships to offload the summer resupply in Iqaluit could make a difference for other communities.

"The less time the ship spends in the harbour here, it increases more time so the ships can get to the other communities quicker. Sometimes we're racing with the ice, literally."

South Polaris Reef

The preliminary plan, as described by Suvega, would include a deep water port on South Polaris Reef. That's near, but not on, the causeway, Suvega said, close to where fuel tanks now perch to pipe the annual fuel resupply to the city's tank farm.

It would also include improvements to the existing breakwater, which is used by hunters, boaters and even cruise ships unloading passengers visiting town. 

The Transportation department was unable to provide any maps of the proposed port and small craft harbour.

The City of Iqaluit had produced a plan for a deep water port in 2005. It's unclear whether the city was involved in the current preliminary plan.