A proposed hydroelectric fibre link from Manitoba’s power grid to five communities and two mines in Nunavut’s Kivalliq region should be part of the national infrastructure strategy, according to an Inuit leader.
But the federal government has been keeping the project on the back burner for at least four years, Kono Tattuinee, the president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, told an audience at the Nunavut Arctic Security and Sovereignty Summit in Iqaluit on June 26.
Tattuinee said that transitioning off 60-year-old diesel generators is a priority for the region.
“We’ve done our best to work with different departments. We tried to get our foot in the door of the finance minister’s office, but we were half in and half out and never really made it,” Tattuinee told those gathered at the summit.
An hydro-electric power connection to Nunavut would allow the territory to start building its own renewable energy facilities and sell electricity back to the rest of Canada’s, according to a website pitching the project. The Nukik Corporation, an Inuit-owned company lobbying the federal government to build the 1,200-kilometre hydro fibre link, counts Tattuinee among its board of directors.
Arviat, Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove, along with two gold mines and future resource projects in the Kivalliq Region, would benefit from the connectivity, according to the website.
High-speed internet for residents, hospitals and businesses would also be a feature of the hydro-fibre link.
Nukik Corporation’s project has been mentioned three times in federal budgets since 2021, and it received $2.8 million to advance engineering and design work last year. The Department of Northern Affairs estimated construction would begin in 2028 at the time.
But Tattuinee told the Nunavut Arctic Security and Sovereignty Summit that the federal government had been keeping proponents of the hydro-fibre link in the dark.
“We have it on a silver platter. It’s all ready, shovel-ready — we were shovel-worthy a few years back, and now we’re shovel-ready,” Tattuinee said.
Despite the frustration with the pace of development, Tattuinee said he's hopeful about the future and believes the federal government will eventually make the project happen.
“We Inuit, we’re resilient, we want to push this through. The time is now, and so we’re very hopeful,” he said.
The federal government passed Bill C-5 on June 26, giving itself far-reaching powers to fast-track “nation-building” infrastructure projects, the same day as Tattuinee’s comments to the summit.
