{"id":279702,"date":"2025-11-13T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279702\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T05:00:16","slug":"iqaluit-hydroelectric-project-reportedly-on-carneys-to-do-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279702\/","title":{"rendered":"Iqaluit hydroelectric project reportedly on Carney\u2019s to-do list"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will be a \u201cbig deal\u201d if the proposed Iqaluit hydroelectricity project is included on the list of federal nation-building projects to be revealed Thursday, says the executive director of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Matt Gemmel, executive director of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, says the Iqaluit hydroelectric project could help enable local resilience and sustainability. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like the kind of project that enables local resilience and sustainability,\u201d Matt Gemmel said in an interview at the Nunavut Association of Municipalities annual general meeting in Iqaluit Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The hydroelectric power plant proposed to be built along the Kuugaluk River, about 60 kilometres northeast of Iqaluit, is expected to make Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s list of projects slated for fast-tracked approval, both the CBC<\/a> and Globe and Mail reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.<\/p>\n

This week, Carney said he will reveal<\/a> the six projects on his list Thursday in British Columbia. Along with the Iqaluit hydroelectric plant, the other projects are believed to include mining and gas exporting, CBC\u2019s sources said.<\/p>\n

This summer, Carney announced the creation of the Major Projects Office to review projects recommended for fast-track approval, and in September he revealed<\/a> the first five.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely happy about that,\u201d Nunavut MP Lori Idlout said of the potential addition of the Iqaluit hydroelectric project to the list.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Inuit-led and it\u2019s been something that the city has been exploring for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iqaluit Mayor Solomon Awa called the prospect \u201cawesome,\u201d but wouldn\u2019t comment further.<\/p>\n

The hydroelectric project is led by Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corp., a subsidiary of Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the entity mandated to promote the rights of Qikiqtani Inuit.<\/p>\n

The project would include an approximately 50-metre-high dam and a powerhouse and could be operational by 2033, generating 15 megawatts of electricity for about 100 years.<\/p>\n

That would be enough power to replace all of Iqaluit\u2019s diesel-generated electricity, which requires burning about 15 million litres of diesel fuel per year.<\/p>\n

That would help make Iqaluit a \u201cmodern Arctic capital<\/a>,\u201d Heather Shilton, the corporation\u2019s executive director, told delegates at the Travel Nunavut annual general meeting last week in Iqaluit.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

There is no exact price tag available for the project, but in 2017 the cost was estimated to be approaching $500 million.<\/p>\n

The federal government is expected to be the project\u2019s main funder and has already allocated $26 million for studies. Also, the corporation is working to get a loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, a Crown corporation that funds Canadian revenue-generating infrastructure projects that are in the public interest.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Shilton declined to comment until Carney\u2019s announcement is made.<\/p>\n

The consideration of Nunavut infrastructure for the nation-building projects list is a positive development, but there is a lot of \u201cambiguity\u201d about what it will mean in practice for the projects and for Nunavummiut, Idlout said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would mean in reality that it would still take a long time for any of those benefits to be seen in Nunavut,\u201d she said, adding smaller projects like the paving of airport runways still lack funding.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to see a balance between meeting the immediate needs of Nunavummiut, as well as investing in those strategic longer-term projects that will keep maintaining our goal toward self-determination,\u201d Idlout said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will be a \u201cbig deal\u201d if the proposed Iqaluit hydroelectricity project is included on the list of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-279702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}