Arctic Biodiversity Climate change Conservation planning Natural resource development Whales and seals

WCS Canada Comments: Grays Bay Road and Port-Information Request

Halliday, W. D., Kirkwood, A., & Insley, S. J.,

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Key points

During the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s Information Request stage, WCS Canada scientists reviewed the Grays Bay Road and Port Project Impact Statement with a focus on permafrost and marine wildlife, including marine birds. The submission identifies information and analysis needed to adequately assess the project’s effects before the review proceeds to later stages.

The submission also includes an appendix addressing caribou and cumulative effects. That brief is also posted separately on our resources page.

• The Impact Statement lacks the forward-looking analysis needed to understand how climate change and project infrastructure could alter permafrost, and how thaw could affect the stability and long-term sustainability of the infrastructure. Available ground-temperature and borehole data should be used to model future conditions, assess thaw and subsidence risk at major project components, and systematically identify terrain that should be avoided.
• Important marine effects, including disturbance from vessels to fish, marine birds, and marine mammals, the impacts of underwater noise, and vessel strike risk, remain missing or underexamined.
• The evidence used to describe marine mammal abundance and distribution is incomplete. Limited acoustic monitoring and analysis may have missed beluga whales and ringed seals, while recent Inuit, Indigenous, and community observations suggest that several whale species may occur more frequently in the regional assessment area than the Impact Statement indicates.
• Shipping assumptions and mitigation commitments require clarification. Different sections describe different operating seasons, leaving uncertainty about whether icebreaking or ice management could occur.
• The Impact Statement should address marine bird vulnerability to vessel noise and disturbance, particularly during wing moult, and examine vessel effects along the full shipping route. Project-related and induced traffic would pass through important whale and marine-bird habitats elsewhere in Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, requiring region-specific assessment, engagement, and mitigation.

Recommended citation

Halliday, W. D., Kirkwood, A., & Insley, S. J., (2026). WCS Canada Comments: Grays Bay Road and Port-Information Request. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada]. https://wcscanada.org/resources/wcs-canada-comments-grays-bay-road-and-port-information-request/