And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.I.S.I.S.) writes: ARCTIC COAST HIGHWAY PROPOSAL RESURRECTED IN NEW NORTHERN ECONOMY Canadian Press, January 10, 1998 by Bob Weber [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] YELLOWKNIFE (CP) - Northern leaders are reviving the idea of an all-weather highway to open one of the last great wilderness areas on the planet to the mining industry. The $600-million project calls for an 850-kilometre road from Yellowknife to a proposed saltwater port at Bathurst Inlet. It would cross the trackless tundra, Canadian Shield and muskeg of the central Arctic. It would rival the creation of the Alaska Highway in scale, says Masood Hassan of the Northwest Territories department of transport, which is spending $1.2 million to study the idea. "That would be a reasonable analogy," he said. "We are not at all daunted." Environmentalists, however, are wary. "This is one of the last large remaining wildlife areas in the world," said Bob Bromley of Ecology North, who sits on a government committee studying the road. "If you look at roads anywhere in the world, you lose wildlife diversity." The Arctic coast highway would run through the mineral-rich Slave Geological Province. That region is home to Canadas diamond developments as well as a number of gold and base metal deposits. Although a feasibility study of the road wont be complete until March, Hassan says the question is when, not if. "In the long term, an all-weather road will be required. The issue is when will it be needed and who will pay for it." Aerial mapping of possible routes is nearly complete. A private company has proposed building the seaport near Kugluktuk on Bathurst Inlet. Discussions on economic strategies for the North, which will include the road, have begun with the federal government. Consultants have already started an environmental-impact assessment of the road. Although the current winter road is adequate for existing mines, other deposits would require a regular road to be profitable, Hassan says. The highway has been proposed before and abandoned as uneconomic. But new diamond projects and new construction techniques may change that, says Richard Bushey of the N.W.T. Construction Association. "I think the economics are more viable," he said. The politics have changed as well. The territories argue that if Ottawa refuses to give up its control of the North's resources, it has the responsibility to build the infrastructure necessary to develop them. As well, if the federal government wants the North to be more self-sufficient, it has to give it the means to reduce the 75 per cent of its budget the territories now get from Canadian taxpayers. "It is of absolute importance that minerals are developed in the N.W.T.," says Hassan. "That would be the main hope of our economic future." Territorial documents suggest that known reserves have the potential to triple mineral exports, which contributed $542 million to the territorys economy in 1997. But Bromley wonders at the price. "Caribou is high on my list of concerns," he says, pointing out that herds of tens of thousands of the animals migrate through the area. He questions the whole strategy of banking on mining to develop the economy of the North. Mines eventually run out, he says, leaving scars on the land and unemployed people who have forgotten their previous skills. "It's the old story about putting all their eggs in one basket," he says. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
