The Baffinland Iron Mines’ expansion project for the Mary River mine site in Nunavut will not be going ahead for the foreseeable future as the federal government has given a final thumbs-down to the proposal that would have seen annual shipping output double to 12 million tonnes of ore. The project included the construction of a new 110-kilometre railway to the Milne Inlet port. The Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) recommended that the project not be allowed to proceed on the basis that the expansion has the potential for “significant adverse ecosystemic effects” on marine mammals, fish, caribou and other wildlife, which in turn could harm Inuit culture, land use and food security. Six months following the NIRB decision, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal concluded that significant adverse effects from the expansion could not be adequately “prevented, mitigated, or adaptively managed under the proposed mitigations.”
