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Eyeing the ice highway

GNWT wants control of Lupin road

Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 27/00) - The government is casting a covetous eye on the Lupin ice road.

For the last 11 years the 650-kilometre winter road has been operated by or for Echo Bay Mines, owner of the gold mine the road leads to and is named after.

Looking for benefits

The Metis of the North Slave want a bigger say in what how the Lupin winter road is run but have yet to throw their support behind a government takeover.

"I'm very much interested in how any new arrangement is going to benefit my people," said Clem Paul, president of the North Slave Metis Alliance. "Right now we get absolutely nothing out of it."

North Slave Metis first want to know how the government plans to administer the road before they support a takeover.

Paul said he is interested in seeing more business opportunities for Metis in the construction and operation of the road.

"We don't mind out-of-province people helping us to a certain degree, but it's time the Northwest Territories started growing up and doing things for ourselves," Paul said.

The caribou-hunting access the road provides is also a concern, he said.

"As a result of the winter road, lots of hunters are going up there. A lot of them don't know anything about hunting and are leaving half the animal behind and spilling oil, and leaving garbage," said Paul.

Calls to the Yellowknives Dene were not returned by deadline.


Transportation Minister Vince Steen has said the department wants to include the road with the more than 1,200 kilometres of other winter roads the government has authority over.

Cabinet has directed officials to begin negotiating transfer of authority for the road from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

DIAND is currently responsible for issuing land occupation licences for the road. In March 1999 it renewed Echo Bay's licence to build and operate the road for another three years.

The cabinet directive comes with one condition -- that the road costs the government nothing to build and operate.

That's a condition Echo Bay has been operating under for the last 10 years. Under the terms of its licence, it can charge users a toll -- roughly 10 cents per ton per kilometre -- to cover the cost of building and operating the road.

"In terms of the annual construction and operation of the road, we don't see things as being a whole lot different from they are today," said Department of Transportation assistant deputy minister Doug Howard.

Open to idea

Echo Bay logistics manager Kirk McLellan said his company has no objection to the idea of the government takeover.

"Basically, we don't want to be in the winter road business," said McLellan. "We're a mining company, as are all the operators up there, and our primary focus is on running the mine."

But McLellan said Echo Bay's would need assurances from the government that the company would still be able to move its goods at a price comparable what it has paid to build and maintain the road over the years.

That may conflict with the territorial government's plans to give others a greater say in the operation of the road.

"We would like to see more than just the mining industry having some say in how the road is operated, how it is constructed," Howard said. "We're looking at various options to include other stakeholders, such as aboriginal groups, in the decision-making process."

Keeping road tolls constant may also be a challenge.

Generate revenue for GNWT

One of the reasons the government wants the road is to keep some of the revenue it generates in the NWT.

Four years ago, when Echo Bay tendered a contract for construction and maintenance of the road, Inuit-owned Nuna Logistics proved the most competitive bidder. Until Echo Bay's licence expires, Nuna Logistics will continue to do the $4 million job of building and maintaining the road.

The licence renewal guarantees Echo Bay the right to operate the road at least this winter and the next two. And the company is making plans for the years after that.

"They've already notified us they have a co-management agreement with BHP and they were talking with Diavik," said DIAND lands administration manager Annette McRobert. "They are planning to come forward with an application to renew in the three companies' names."

Echo Bay and BHP currently have a co-management agreement for the operation of the road.

Howard said negotiating the transfer of control of the road to the territorial government will begin as soon as possible after today's federal election.

The transfer is slightly complicated by the fact that the last 50 kilometres of the road are in Nunavut. Howard said the Nunavut government supports the transfer to the GNWT of the part of the road in the NWT.