Ground breaks on Mackenzie fibre line
$80-million project set to bring high-speed internet to communities along Mackenzie Valley
Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 26, 2015
INUVIK
More than 30 local and territorial politicians, aboriginal leaders and business representatives from Ottawa and as far away as Texas donned hard hats and safety gear to see ground break on the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Line.
Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya, left, and Gwich'in Tribal Council vice-president Norman Snowshoe at the fibre line construction site. - Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo |
"We have come a long way and what we have now is tremendous," said Nellie Cournoyea, chair and CEO of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, at a Jan. 14 dinner reception celebrating the project. Cournoyea went into the history of communication in the NWT, including the use of trapper radios and Morse code, mail delivery by dog team and the provision of FM radios in communities.
"We're there now and thank you to the Government of the Northwest Territories as a whole because without their backing and support, we wouldn't be here today," Cournoyea said.
The $80-million project is slated for completion in 2016 and will see more than 1,000 km of fibre-optic cable buried into the ground between Fort Simpson to Inuvik. Following the completion of the Inuvik to Tukoyaktuk Highway, the line continue to Tuktoyaktuk.
Scott Lyons, the COO of Ledcor, one part of the consortium awarded the project, handed out small sections of the black cable containing 48-fibre strands at the ceremony. Northwestel will build, operate and maintain the line with Ledcor as Northern Lights Fibre Consortium. The heads of both companies spoke at the reception.
Paul Flaherty, president and CEO of Northwestel, said the fibre-optic line would allow his company to offer more services to Northern communities.
Speaking at the dinner, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger said the line would benefit telehealth and education initiatives in the territory.
He went on to describe where the idea for the fibre line came from.
"In 2006 the first satellite disc came (to Inuvik) and the process started," he said, describing a nascent satellite station near the community. The German and Swedish governments operate dishes in the area because it is a convenient place to catch information from satellites as they orbit across the Arctic. The Canadian government is also in the process of constructing a satellite.
The problem is, without a high-speed fibre-optic line, the governments must physically mail the data they receive out from Inuvik.
"The proposal (for the fibre-optic line) hit my desk around 2009 as the Minister of Finance. When I saw that paper it was clear to me that this is a must-do project," said Miltenberger.
"It's a game-changer, it's a territorially significant project."
Thanking some of the people who have had key roles throughout the project's development, Miltenberger said, once in place, it will alleviate some of the economic uncertainty in the North.
"This is a territory-building piece of work," he said.
"This project and what it's going to bring to Inuvik is going to level out the peaks and valleys that we struggle with."
