Naval facility in Canadian Arctic stalled by ‘concerns’ with jetty

Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Victor Gronmyr looks out over the ice covering the Victoria Strait as the Finnish icebreaker MSV Nordica traverses the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in 2017. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The Department of National Defence says the opening of a naval refuelling depot in the Arctic is on hold due to structural concerns with the facility’s jetty.

The Nanisivik Naval Facility on northern Baffin Island was announced in 2007 by former prime minister Stephen Harper and was to be operational by 2015. But after a decade of delays, the $115-million project remains in limbo.

Last summer, the department said contractors at the site had “minimal” work to complete – fixing valves, painting buildings and replacing old pipes – before the maritime outpost could open to the navy’s new Arctic patrol vessels.

• Read more: Navy facility in Canadian Arctic ‘could be finished this season,’ a decade overdue

While it appears that work is now finished, problems with the facility’s jetty have further stalled the opening of the deepwater port.

“While construction of the infrastructure for the Nanisivik Naval Refueling Facility is complete, the facility itself is not yet operational due to ongoing concerns with the condition of the accompanying jetty structure,” National Defence spokesperson Nick Drescher Brown wrote in an emailed statement.

“We are still finalizing the work plan for the site, and we will have more information to share in due course.”

The concerns with the jetty arose in 2008 when the department “saw evidence of corrosion to the steel” of the existing structure, according to spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin.

“We discovered that Arctic cold-water bacteria were degrading the existing jetty through a process called microbial-induced corrosion, an occurrence that has been found at other sites around the world,” Poulin wrote in an email.

“Above-ground construction of the fuelling facility began while early attempts to mitigate the corrosion were being tested.”

The department did not have an estimated timeline for the repair work to be completed.

Multiple project delays

Originally envisioned as an all-season marine port and airstrip from which Canada would assert its Arctic sovereignty, plans for the Nanisivik facility were scaled back after its projected cost grew to more than $258 million.

Today, the site plan includes unheated fuel storage tanks, a site office, a wharf operator’s shelter, a helicopter landing pad and an unheated storage building.

Inclement weather, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, brought further delays to the already abbreviated Arctic construction season.

In 2021, the road connecting the Nanisivik facility to the nearest operational airport in Arctic Bay, Nunavut, washed away, leaving the site inaccessible to vehicles until 2022, when the road was deemed safe again.

• Read more: Military hopeful new Arctic port will open in 2022, but ‘significant’ uncertainty remains

To date, the Department of National Defence says it has spent approximately $107.6 million of the Nanisivik facility’s budget.

Last year, the department said it was still assessing the requirements of the navy’s new Arctic and offshore patrol ships before seeking a contractor to provide fuel and operate the site.

A department spokesperson said any fuel arriving at the facility will have to be shipped in on a barge in late August and then stored in the facility’s fuel tanks for at least 48 hours before samples are flown to Ottawa for testing – a procedure that will take approximately one week to complete.

Once the fuel is approved by Ottawa, the facility will have about four to five weeks to replenish the navy ships before cold temperatures force the facility to shut down again for the season.

“Depending on the temperatures in late September, fuel may start to thicken as the fuel tanks and lines are not heated, limiting the navy’s ability to use the fuel,” the spokesperson said. “At that time, the fuel must be removed from the tanks.”

Situated below the entrance to the vital Northwest Passage shipping route, the Nanisivik facility could service other government vessels at a time when Arctic sovereignty and exploration are increasingly relevant to decision-makers in Ottawa and around the world.

The current defence policy of the Liberal government warns that other countries are seeking access to the Northwest Passage and the surrounding Arctic waters as an efficient shipping route between Europe and East Asia.

The policy says Russia and China, in particular, are exploring approaches to the Canadian North, probing infrastructure and collecting intelligence, requiring a greater Canadian military presence in the region.