QAUSUITTUQ/RESOLUTE - A federal proposal to spill hundreds of litres of crude oil into Lancaster Sound this summer to test oil clean-up methods has been cancelled until a later date, officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said.

John Amagoalik, director of lands and resources with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, said he and other Inuit representatives are relieved the experiment will not take place this year.

"We're very relieved because we had very great concern about this proposal even though it's a small amount of oil," he said.

The sound is a haven for a variety of marine animals and birds, Amagoalik said.

"Lancaster Sound is already recognized as one of the most important ecological systems in the whole world," he said.

The experiment called for 12 individual 100-litre spills to be conducted in Barrow Strait, Wellington Channel and Lancaster Sound, documents submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board said.

Dr. Kenneth Lee, a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans proposed the experiment, which was scheduled to take place from August 6 to 15.

In the project's technical summary, Lee said the clean-up involved adding chemical oil dispersants and fine minerals to the oil to break it up into droplets in a method called "enhanced dispersion."

"What this means is that the spilled oil, which floats on the surface of the water, should be transferred into the water as small oil droplets," Lee said in the summary.

"The droplets are diluted by natural tides and currents to low concentrations that have no effect on the health of living organisms. These small dispersed oil droplets are broken down more quickly by natural bacteria and thus, naturally removed from the ocean."

Lee previously tested the mineral method in ice in the St. Lawrence River, the summary stated.

Most clean-up equipment is designed for open water without ice, the summary also stated, and an oil spill clean-up in the Arctic would pose unique challenges.

"Testing in actual environmental conditions, not just in the lab or in southern rivers, is needed so that the new techniques can be used in the Arctic when needed," Lee said in the summary.

The project is no longer scheduled to happen this year because Lee is assisting with the clean-up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, director of the National Centre for Arctic Aquatic Research Excellence Robert Fudge said.

"DFO's proposal to test oil spill clean-up techniques in the Arctic is not proceeding this year and primarily because Dr. Ken Lee was called to assist the U.S. in its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill," Fudge said.

Fudge said the department still plans on performing the project, which he said would only be done after community consultations take place.

"Dr. Lee right now has indicated that once his work with the U.S. is up and he returns, he'll try to arrange a community consultation," he said.

Amagoalik said he was disappointed no consultations were done before the DFO submitted their proposal.

"They did absolutely no consultation before they presented the proposal so it was a total surprise to all of us," he said.

In his summary, Lee said he had planned on using the CCGS Henry Larsen to conduct the experiment. A helicopter from the ship would be used to "visually confirm" all of the oil was cleaned up successfully.

Fudge said the project was not in partnership with military exercises scheduled to take place in the area as part of Operation Nanook from August 6 to 26.

"There were never any plans to connect with Operation Nanook," Fudge said. "It was going to be held as a separate exercise on a separate ship."