Cambridge Bay (May 12/03) - The $165 million Bathurst port and road project has been set back at least a year.

Robert Nault, minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), wants more information on the mega-project before sending it to environmental review.

Charlie Lyall, chairman of the Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project, said that means it will be next summer at the earliest before equipment and supplies can be brought in.

"We can't start moving equipment in until we get a permit and all of the reviews are done," said Lyall.

"Whatever form that takes, or how soon it is done, we are not going to catch this year's shipping season."

Backers of the project -- a joint venture between the Kitikmeot Corporation and Nuna Logistics -- have been waiting for Nault's recommendation on how an environmental review will proceed.

At issue is whether it will be done by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (part 5 under the land claims agreement), or by the federal environment ministry (part 6).

Before he makes that call, Nault has told NIRB he wants a revised project description from the backers that reflects changes to the port/road plan made earlier this year.

In January, the joint venture reported that the Inmet lead-zinc mine at Izok and a connecting road were being dropped from the plan until world metal prices rebounded.

NIRB wants the revised project description from the proponents by May 12.

Project manager Tony Keen, of Nuna Logistics in Vancouver, estimated the delay will cost the venture at least several hundred thousand dollars in direct costs.

"We had hoped to have the permitting in place to start work by the summer of 2004," said Keen.

On that schedule, construction of the port and a 211-kilometre all-weather road south to Contwoyto Lake would have been completed by 2006.

The port would be capable of handling 50,000-tonne ice class vessels and would include a tank farm and 1,200-metre airstrip.

"Now it will be the summer of 2005 at the earliest before we can start," Keen said.

"That adds to our costs, we lose a year's revenues from the port, and the Inuit people lose a year's work."

The joint venture wants a part 5 review by NIRB and has a legal opinion backing that view.

In a letter to NIRB last week, they pointed out that the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, NTI (Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated), and the Government of Nunavut all support a local review.

Nault is sending signals he will recommend a full-blown part 6 federal review, however.

The minister advised NIRB in an April 10 letter that broader issues surrounding the port "suggest that the appropriate course of action may be to refer the project to the Minister of Environment for a part 6 panel review."

Those issues include:

- The environmental impact of shipping in newly established marine transportation corridors

- National and international questions regarding the jurisdiction and use of Arctic waters

- The impact of the road in both Nunavut and NWT on the Bathurst caribou herd

- The impact on regions outside of Nunavut due to the "change in direction of re-supply routes to Northern Canada."

Nearly $6 million has been spent on project feasibility studies to date, half of the funding coming from DIAND.

Keen said the joint venture has enough money remaining in its start-up kitty to carry it through to the summer of 2004.