Thank you very much, Madam.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for giving us your time and the opportunity to present to you this morning.
My name is Stanley Anablak, and I am the President of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, also known as KIA. KIA is a regional Inuit association in western Nunavut. I am here with my colleagues to talk about our views on the national trade corridors fund, especially as it relates to Kitikmeot Inuit Association's Grays Bay road and port project.
I represent more than 6,000 Inuit beneficiaries in the Nunavut agreement who live in the five Kitikmeot communities. The Kitikmeot region is the least populated region in Nunavut. Unfortunately, it is also the poorest region and desperately in need of trade corridor infrastructure that can help to transform our economy. While we have not been granted any project funding, the national trade corridors fund program could present a useful and appropriate avenue for us, and the team administering the fund has been professional and helpful.
We will identify the program's positive features in our presentation. However, as nothing is perfect, we will also use this opportunity to offer some suggestions that could improve the program, especially for remote regions such as the one I come from.
ln late March of this year KIA submitted an application to the NTCF. This application is currently being reviewed by Transport Canada officials. KIA is seeking $22 million from the fund to support activities that would get the Grays Bay road and port project completely shovel-ready within the next two to three years. The Grays Bay road and port is the most advanced trade corridor opportunity in the territorial north. I refer you to the maps that we have provided to the committee.
ln summary, KIA proposes to build a new deepwater port on the Coronation Gulf in the Northwest Passage. The port would connect to a new 230-kilometre all-season gravel road that itself would connect to the existing Tibbett to Contwoyto winter road, an annual ice road, mostly built over frozen lakes, that runs from near Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to the Jericho mine site in western Nunavut.
Grays Bay road would provide the first permanent land-based transportation link between Canada and any part of Nunavut. The Government of the Northwest Territories is working closely with us because they want to convert their winter road to an all-season road. They welcome and would benefit from the opportunity to access a port on the Northwest Passage. We think our project is a nation-building project, just like Canada's railway development of the late 1800s.
The road and port present an opportunity to fundamentally improve the economic and social conditions of the population of our region. An all-season transportation corridor between Yellowknife and a port on the Northwest Passage would greatly enhance the economic feasibility of known mineral deposits being developed for the benefit of northerners and Canada, and would promote mineral exploration by lowering the cost of accessing a mineral-rich but greatly under-explored region. It would substantially improve quality of life for the region's residents by significantly lowering the cost of community resupply, thereby increasing food security and lowering the high cost of goods in our communities. It would significantly reduce the cost of resupplying the NWT's diamond mines, which could help to extend the mine life of these important drivers of the northern economy. It would also create a significant presence in the central Arctic to promote Canada's sovereignty and security and improve safety for travellers.
In terms of what we like about the national trade corridors fund, we like that indigenous groups, including Inuit, are able to apply directly without having to go through our respective provincial or territorial governments. This provides indigenous people greater autonomy to pursue projects that focus on regional priorities.
We like that a funding envelope was set up within the NTCF to exclusively fund territorial projects. This helps to ensure that northerners are not directly competing for scarce dollars against mega urban projects in vote-rich southern Canada.