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Northwest Territories sees trade missions to China paying off
IAIN MARLOW - ASIA-PACIFIC CORRESPONDENT
The Globe and Mail | Mar. 22 2015

In the remote Arctic hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, on the shores of the Beaufort Sea in the Northwest Territories, rumblings of Chinese interest in funding a new research station, however unlikely, were warmly welcomed.

But even if it were built, it would be just one of the big changes coming to the small community.

“I’m open to hearing their proposal and bringing it to the community,” Mayor Darrel Nasogaluak said in an interview. “I’d like to see what they’d like to see done here. We’re always open to research being done here.”

Last week, a Chinese scientist told The Globe and Mail in Beijing that China was interested in funding a new research outpost in Canada’s High Arctic – and thought that Tuktoyaktuk, or Tuk as it is known, would make the perfect location.

The remote Inuvialuit community – more than 1,100 kilometres north of Yellowknife – is ideal for research since it is located in the resource-rich Mackenzie Delta region, and Chinese scientists are searching for potential permanent outposts where they can study the effects of climate change and do research on oil and gas extraction.

For Tuktoyaktuk, a community that does not have an all-year, all-weather road connecting it to municipalities farther south, the interest comes at a time of change.

A new $300-million all-weather highway to the area, essentially extending the Dempster Highway north from Inuvik, is scheduled to be finished by 2017, and would replace the ice road that connects the community during winter months. The development could spur economic development in the region and reduce the stingingly high cost of food in the North.

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Full Story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...ticle23574748/