Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Bathurst Inlet (May 24/04) - The Bathurst Inlet Road and Port Project, expected to create jobs in the Kitikmeot region with all-weather roads and a deep sea port for improved transportation, will be reviewed by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB), not a federal agency.

This announcement was made by federal minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Andy Mitchell on May 7.

The Part 5 review means that organizations in the Kitikmeot region will have more involvement in reviewing the environmental impact of the mega-project.

The Bathurst Inlet project has raised concerns among environmentalists in Canada, who lament the disruption of the untouched beauty of the region and claim the project will disrupt the migration patterns of the Bathurst caribou herd.

In July 2003, the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee sent a number of people to the Kitikmeot region to look at exactly where all the development is going to take place.

Charlie Lyall, an Inuk and president of the Kitikmeot Corporation, says the project will create much-needed jobs in the Kitikmeot region.

"Nunavut companies expecting to benefit from the project include the Kitikmeot Corporation, Nuna Logistics, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the Government of Nunavut.

These organizations, along with Inmet Mining and the communities of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, and Bathurst Inlet, form the project technical committee created to advance the project.

David Simailak, MLA for Baker Lake and Nunavut's economic development and transportation minister, said the project is better off sticking with a Northern approach and review, rather than reviews coming from southern Canada.