Federal government announces $64M for long-awaited Iqaluit port

Federal environment minister Leona Aglukkaq has promised $64 million for a long-awaited harbour in Iqaluitwith one caveat.

Aglukkaq was in the northern capitalThursday to say the federal government is committing up to $64million to finance the long-awaited project, which has been at thetop of Nunavut's wish list for years.

During her announcement, though, she alluded to the upcoming election, and the fact thatensuring the funding remains could be contingent on the results.

"What I can say is that ifI'm re-elected, I'm going to make sure that the funding remains here," she said."And I've committed to it, I've announced it today, and that it is my commitment to delivering on this project."

Sources say a federal election is expected to be called thisweekend, and Conservative ministers are appearing coast-to-coast tomake funding announcements.

$85M project under development 'for years'

"This project has been under development for many years,"Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna said in a release.

"It will provide, for the first time in Nunavut, a deepwaterport for commercial, sealift and cruise ship traffic, as well as asafe harbour for local hunters, fishermen and boaters."

All but one of Nunavut's 25 communities are on the coast. Onlyone has any kind of docking facilities -- a harbour was built inPangnirtung to accommodate fish off-loading for the local processingplant.

Elsewhere, Nunavummiut have long complained that coastal regionsfrom Newfoundland to Vancouver Island have hundreds ofgovernment-owned harbours, while they have to run their boats up onthe shore.

Even in Iqaluit, supplies shipped in from the south must beloaded from ships onto barges and hauled up onto the only CoastGuard-administered beach in Canada. Tourists on cruise ships mustcross sometimes choppy waters on tiny inflatable boats if they wantto visit the communities they pass.

It's not only inconvenient, it's unsafe. At least one Inuitfisherman has died while trying to get to his boat moored offshore,which he was trying to move in advance of a storm.

As early as 2006, federal ministers had a proposal completewith designs and economic impacts for seven ports around theterritory. The total cost would have been $41 million over fiveyears.

The single port in Thursday's announcement is expected to cost$85 million, which includes about $20 million from Nunavut.

No timeline for construction or completion of the port has beenreleased. Nor is there information about what size of vessel theport could accommodate.

Once built, the port is expected to reduce the off-loading timeof dry cargo to 20 working days from 60 and cut fueloff-loading times to five working days from 15.

It will increase safety and reduce risk of damage to small boats.

It could also be a potential base of operations for military orsearch and rescue operations