Maritime Awards Society of Canada

Ottawa Citizen, 26 November 2009 – Last Thursday, the Department of National Defence announced that a CAD $900,000 design contract for a Canadian Forces naval base at Nanisivik in Nunavut was awarded to Vancouver firm WorleyParsons Westmar, but the complex is predicted to be operational by 2014, not 2012 as previously estimated.  Initial site studies for the Nanisivik Naval Facility (NNF) have been completed, and construction could begin in 2011, but the project is likely to slip further behind schedule with logistical and environmental challenges.  NNF, which is projected to cost $100m, is designed to act as a staging base for vessels operating in the high Arctic, and the Associate Deputy Minister of Defence has said that the US and other Canadian allies could be granted access to the facility.

(Courtesy “Daily Intelligence Brief”. World Naval Edition, December 2 2009. Office of the Asia-Pacific Advisor, Maritime Forces Pacific, Canadian Navy)