IQALUIT
The Geological Survey of Canada will map the seabed in several locations in the Foxe Channel and Hudson Strait this summer, Iqaluit city council heard April 11.

Research geologist Denis Lavoie and engagement officer Jessica Roche with Natural Resources Canada also travelled to Coral Harbour and Rankin Inlet last week, and plan on visiting Kimmirut and Cape Dorset in early May.

"We're still looking for input from communities on how best to do this research program. We're looking for guidance, comments, areas where the ship should not go, specific times of the year because of mammal migrations or other environmental concerns," said Lavoie.

He further explained that the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program was first launched in 2008 to advance and modernize geological knowledge in the North.

"The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) research activities target areas of the North to fill critical geoscience knowledge gaps on the likelihood of resource potential," he said.

This bit of the program began with the community visits and is expected to be completed in March 2019.

Lavoie did stress early on, while outlining program activities, that sonar sound waves differ dramatically from seismic air gun array sound waves, such as those proposed near Clyde River. That community was at the Supreme Court of Canada last November in an attempt to overturn a National Energy Board decision to allow seismic testing in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait.

Mayor Madeleine Redfern was unconvinced with the difference between sonar and seismic.

"You explained that this is similar to the past proposed work to the Lancaster Sound seismic testing that resulted in the QIA seeking an injunction and the judicial order that blocked it, as well as the Clyde River lawsuit that has gone all the way up to the Supreme Court," she said.

"It appears that the work that you speak of with respect to the mapping of the seabed and trying to ascertain the geological features is very similar if not identical to the seismic testing."

Lavoie reiterated: "It's totally different."

Using an illustration, he said the decibels and frequencies are entirely different in intensity - seismic is low frequency with long waves, sonar is high frequency with short waves.

"Marine mammals cannot hear the high frequency waves produced by our sonar. So these are two very different tools. The seismic survey is designed to image the earth at great depth, so the sound waves will penetrate the rock, go deep, and then come back. The sonar survey that we are doing, the sound waves are not as strong, so they will only reflect off the sea floor. They don't go into the sea floor."

Both methods, however, do determine the presence of oil and gas resources.

"You mentioned there's oil leaks on the seabed ... the results of your data collection, is any of that given to oil companies," asked Coun. Terry Dobbin.

Lavoie said the information is available to everybody who wants to access it.

"The thing is, in the Hudson Bay, there is a moratorium on exploration. I know there's a company that contacted the government to get exploration licences in the Hudson Bay. They were denied because there's a moratorium," he said.

Lavoie's team will be focused on Hudson Strait and the Foxe Basin between Aug. 16 and 23, while another team, using the same Canadian Coast Guard Ship Hudson, will survey Baffin Bay. Community visits for the work in Baffin Bay took place in Pangnirtung, Clyde River, Iqaluit and Qikiqtarjuaq between May 2015 and March 2016. That survey was postponed twice due to difficulties with the ship.

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