Cruise ship's planned voyage open to comments from public
Tight timeline for permits to be issued before scheduled sailing
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, July 9, 2016
NUNAVUT
Will the 820-foot, 68,000-tonne, 13-deck luxury cruise ship Crystal Serenity sail through Nunavut waters and the Northwest Passage with all permits in place next month?
Graphic designer Jamesie Itulu, left, and business owner Michael Milton show off some of the clothing High Arctic Apparel is making after the business launched in Pond Inlet. - photo courtesy of High Arctic Apparel
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The timeline is tight. The vessel's planned voyage from Anchorage, Alaska, scheduled to depart Aug. 16, to New York City is now before the Nunavut Impact Review Board for screening. This is the time for Nunavummiut, other members of the public and stakeholders to voice concerns.
The regulatory process has a 105-day turnaround - 45 days for the Nunavut Planning Commission, 45 days for the review board and 15 days for the federal and territorial ministers responsible.
NIRB's deadline for a determination is Aug. 12, with a ministerial deadline for a decision 15 calendar days later, Aug. 27 - well past the ship's scheduled departure. By Aug. 28, the Serenity should be cruising Dolphin Strait and Union Strait and arriving at Cambridge Bay Aug. 29, according to the itinerary on the company's website.
"And that's just the pre-permitting process," said Tara Arko, NIRB director of technical services, about the regulatory deadlines. "So that's not the time to process by the permitting agency themselves.
"What we see oftentimes with proponents is that as much as some of these things are pre-planned at various stages, they don't necessarily know enough detail to undergo the assessment phase. It really is the responsibility of the proponent to seek all necessary permits."
In fact, Crystal Cruises has been planning its Arctic voyage for several years.
The voyage is sold out. Passage tickets began at $21,855 per person, but tickets for elite suites were as high as $120,000. This is a significant investment for travellers.
While cruise ships travel Nunavut waters every summer and have been since the 1980s, the size and scope of the Crystal Serenity - carrying approximately 1,625 souls, is unprecedented. In addition, the icebreaker hired by Crystal Cruises, the British Royal Research Ship Sir Ernest Shackleton, will carry 44 souls.
"In 2012, the number of persons aboard one vessel was 508. In a five-year period, from 2009 to 2013, the number of persons on board averaged approximately 150 to 300. This will be the first cruise ship to enter the Nordreg Zone (Arctic), with an estimated 1,600 persons on board," Peter Garapick, the Canadian Coast Guard superintendent of Search and Rescue for the Central and Arctic Region, told Nunavut News/North.
About carrying out assessments, Arko says, "In practice, on the ground, you need a certain amount of detail to assess the impacts. If you don't know where they're going, what tours they're going to be offering, how many people might be involved, the resources that will be consumed, the waste that will be produced - you're not able to go through the assessment."
She adds: "Despite the fact that they've been saying, 'Oh it would be nice to do this,' it's only once that they're able to provide that level of detail that we often see the submissions for the permits themselves."
Proposed project conforms to land-use plan
The Nunavut Planning Commission, which has various responsibilities related to project applications, referred Crystal Cruises' project proposal to the review board for screening after issuing a positive conformity determination with the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan.
The review board has its 45-day deadline to make a determination to the ministers responsible, which includes the comment process. The deadline for comments, which the board fully considers, is July 26. The board has until Aug. 12 to consider all comments in its decision-making process.
"That being said, we don't let a piece of paper sit on our desk until the 45 days is up. We try to process the applications as reasonably as our time allows. And we are committed to keeping that 45 days. So most often, our decisions will go out before that 45-day timeline has finished," said Arko.
Part of the board's decision is whether a review is needed.
"It's not so much a yes or a no (to a project). The board has several options when it's making its decision. Can the project proceed with terms and conditions? Is a review required? Or are the impacts so grievous that the project should be modified or abandoned," stated Arko.
On June 22, the board requested more information from Crystal Cruises. When that happened, the clock stopped on the assessment and restarted again once the information was received.
NIRB requested Crystal Cruises that it "submit completed NIRB Part 1 Forms in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun pursuant to the NIRB's project application requirements through the NIRB's online public registry."
The rationale for the request is based on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the one-year-old Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act (NuPPAA), which came into effect July 9, 2015. "Translated versions of the NIRB Part 1 form are required in order to assist unilingual community organizations and members of the public to understand and provide comments on the proposal," states the board's letter of request to Crystal Cruises.
Proposed project conforms to land-use plan
The Nunavut Planning Commission, which has various responsibilities related to project applications, referred Crystal Cruises' project proposal to the review board for screening after issuing a positive conformity determination with the North Baffin Regional Land Use Plan.
The review board has its 45-day deadline to make a determination to the ministers responsible, which includes the comment process. The deadline for comments, which the board fully considers, is July 26. The board has until Aug. 12 to consider all comments in its decision-making process.
"That being said, we don't let a piece of paper sit on our desk until the 45 days is up. We try to process the applications as reasonably as our time allows. And we are committed to keeping that 45 days. So most often, our decisions will go out before that 45-day timeline has finished," said Arko.
Part of the board's decision is whether a review is needed.
"It's not so much a yes or a no (to a project). The board has several options when it's making its decision. Can the project proceed with terms and conditions? Is a review required? Or are the impacts so grievous that the project should be modified or abandoned," stated Arko.
On June 22, the board requested more information from Crystal Cruises. When that happened, the clock stopped on the assessment and restarted again once the information was received.
NIRB requested Crystal Cruises that it "submit completed NIRB Part 1 Forms in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun pursuant to the NIRB's project application requirements through the NIRB's online public registry."
The rationale for the request is based on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the one-year-old Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act (NuPPAA), which came into effect July 9, 2015. "Translated versions of the NIRB Part 1 form are required in order to assist unilingual community organizations and members of the public to understand and provide comments on the proposal," states the board's letter of request to Crystal Cruises.
After the board, the ministers
But there's one more regulatory step. The review board's determination has to go to the responsible federal and territorial ministers for final approval. The ministers get 15 days to decide.
In this case, the ministers responsible include Nunavut's minister of Economic Development and Transportation and Nunavut's minister of Culture and Heritage, Canada's minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard, and Canada's minister of Transport.
These departments will also be responsible for issuing permits, along with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association.
"The responsible minister (which may or may not be the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada), may reject a determination by the Nunavut Impact Review Board for various reasons. For example if the board recommends a project should proceed, the responsible minister may reject that determination if he or she believes the project is not in the national or regional interest," said Shawn Jackson, a spokesperson for Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
"Conversely, if the board recommends a project not proceed, the responsible minister may reject that determination if they believe the project is in the national or regional interest or that the assessment was in some way deficient. In either case, the minister must provide justification for the decision."
Jackson says to date, no NIRB recommendations have been rejected by the minister, and there is only one example of the minister modifying a recommendation before accepting it.
NuPPAA also lays out consequences for proceeding with a project without the necessary permits.
"There are repercussions, fines and jail time if you proceed with the project before the permitting is in place. That is very explicitly outlined. It's a very new act, so we haven't seen enforcement under that act yet related to NIRB or its decisions," said Arko.
"But it's very clearly outlined in there that the expectation would be that it is the responsibility of the proponent to have all permits in place prior to operations commencing."
Arko says the review board does try to assist proponents during the regulatory process.
"We are clear the timelines are the timelines. The process is that process no matter what type of proposal or what pressure is being applied. The NIRB has a huge priority to a consistent process."
Crystal Cruises' project proposal includes its planned 2017 voyage.
Molly Morgan, a publicist with Crystal Cruises, responded to questions from Nunavut News/North on July 8.
"There are myriad of permits required, issued by national, provincial and local government entities. Obtaining these is an ongoing process. However we have been communicating with the agencies involved for well over a year and are being kept updated with progress and any potential issues, so we do not anticipate any problems with the permits being issued," Morgan stated.
