Feds announce up to $49.5M for Inuvik airport upgrades
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Money represents federal government’s first investment through the Arctic Infrastructure Fund
Federal ministers announced up to $49.5 million in funding on Monday to modernize the Mike Zubko Airport in Inuvik, N.W.T.
The money will go toward giving the existing cracked runway a consistent paved surface and upgrading the access road with asphalt, which will all be done in partnership with the territorial government. The project is meant to support heavier traffic and growing cargo volumes at the airport.
“It will also improve the airport’s resilience to northern conditions, including the impacts of melting permafrost,” said Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty, who made the announcement on behalf of Steven MacKinnon, federal minister of transport.
Construction is planned to start in the fall and is expected to be completed within three years.
This is the first project to be funded under the Arctic Infrastructure Fund, a $1-billion fund set up by the federal government in its 2025 budget to build and expand transportation infrastructure in the Arctic that serves both the military and communities.
Prime Minister Mark Carney previously announced in March that upgrades to Inuvik’s airport would be a component of the federal government’s $35-billion plan to modernize and expand defence capabilities in the North.
This new funding comes in addition to the $230 million already set aside to extend and modernize the airport’s runway under that plan.
Department of National Defence officials explained at a town hall in April that a runway expansion, paired with new hangars, would allow new kinds of military aircraft to land in Inuvik, where the existing Forward Operating Location is set to expand.
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