April 11, 2008
Around Nunavut
NTI lobbies Ottawa on infrastructure
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. hopes the territory's infrastructure needs don't get lost in the rush to build a shipping gateway connecting British Columbia and the booming Chinese market.
Monica Ell, NTI's director of business and economic development, was in Ottawa last week, pushing the Senate's standing committee on transportation and communications to include the Arctic in its study of the so-called Pacific Gateway.
Ell told senators Nunavut needs massive upgrades in infrastructure, especially ports and small craft harbours to spur economic development and lower the cost of living.
"Over 100 vessels were in and around our waters last shipping season," Ell told the committee. "Marine business around our communities [has] no place to tie up, like ships passing in the night."
Nunavut, she said, needs tens of billions of dollars worth of federal spending to begin to catch up to the rest of Canada in basic infrastructure. She called on Ottawa to develop an "Arctic gateway and trade corridor initiative" to connect the territory with global markets via Canada's transportation hubs.
But, Denis Robert, the committee's clerk, said it's up to the Senate as a whole, not the committee, to change the terms of reference to include the Arctic.
