EDITORIAL PAGE — Opening up the north

Times are a-changing for everyone. What used to be considered the frontier lands of northern Canada have today been, if not tamed, then slightly subdued by civilization.

Political events both at home and abroad have conspired to bring about social change. The entrepreneurial dreamers among us have dared to draw up plans for major northern oil and gas and mineral developments. Our evolving technology has brought the world more than a few steps closer. There is even a study now that concludes that commercial shipping is possible at least five months of the year in and out of the Coronation Gulf region, north of the Arctic Circle. Where will it all end?

Much attention has been focused on the north by the resource sector. Mention of the resource industries today would of course be in reference to petroleum and mining, but you don’t have to go back that far to discover the importance of furs and whaling.

Coronation Gulf is the body of water between mainland Northwest Territories and Victoria Island. Its geographic location is significant in that it sits some 200 miles north of the Izok Lake copper-zinc-lead-silver exploration and development project of Metall and Minnova, which are looking for the most economical means of transportation.

There are other potentially significant mineral prospects in the same area, which could also benefit from a nearby seawater port, not the least of which is the Lac de Gras diamond exploration play which has been much in the news. A re-opening of the Colomac gold mine 130 miles north of Yellowknife by Royal Oak Mines could only serve to quicken the overall pace of development. Among the corporations and individuals closely watching the Coronation Gulf developments has to be Echo Bay Mines, operator of the Lupin gold mine in the same general area of the Northwest Territories. In preparing its mine for production startup in 1982, the company chose to fly in all of the building materials. Since 1983, Echo Bay has also made great use of a winter road which remains passable for 10 weeks of the year and which allows the company to transport, economically, its fuel and many needed heavy items. Canarctic Shipping Co., which operates the Arctic-classed M.V. Arctic, says it spent a year studying both an eastern route and a western route to and from Coronation Gulf. Support for the study came from the federal and territorial governments and a handful of senior (including Echo Bay) and junior mining companies.

Such are the treacherous conditions in that part of the world that the study recommends the construction of one or two ships to proposed Canadian Arctic-class standards in order to guarantee the safe transport of 400,000 tonnes of material annually.

Much work remains to be completed before any ocean port is built. The route to Coronation Gulf must be charted more accurately, for example, and year-round work must be found for the proposed ships to cut back on the cost of shipping from Coronation Gulf and the cost of building the ships themselves.

The impact on the environment of such an ocean port was not overlooked by Canarctic, which examined aboriginal land use, ice field disruption, accidents, wildlife and other issues in its study.

Mankind’s reach appears to know no bounds. The northern climes which have been home to aboriginal peoples for centuries are slowly opening up to the rest of the world.