Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Mar 27/02) - The feasibility of a scrap-metal recycling project in Rankin Inlet will be examined this spring.

According to Brock Junkin, the regional director of the Department of Sustainable Development in the Kivalliq region, the government committed $6,000 towards the pilot project.

The $25,000 project, which would eventually see scrap metal in the hamlet cleaned up and barged south, will be jointly funded with the Manitoba government.

Junkin said the initiative came about following the signing of a memorandum of understanding earlier this month.

The recycling project was named alongside tourism initiatives, transportation concerns and energy usage.

"It's one concrete project that's emerged. It will look at the viability of taking scrap metal from three communities in northern Manitoba and Rankin Inlet," said Junkin.

The money will be used in each of the four communities to explore what sort of scrap metal exists and examine what kind of infrastructure and storage that needs to be built.

Local training needs, number of personnel required and the benefits to be gained by recycling the materials will also be examined, Junkin said.

"We'll look at the payoffs in terms of dollars and not having a bunch of scrap metal leaking into the environment," said Junkin.

All scrap would be sorted in each community and then shipped to Churchill, Man., by empty sealift barges.

From there, the metal would be shipped via Manitoba's rail system to a proper recycling facility and then on to the sheet-metal market.

If successful, Junkin said the pilot project could be expanded to rid all of Nunavut's communities of their scrap metal.

"It's good news for Nunavut," said Junkin. "There's great potential for the entire territory."