Base de données de recherche des TNO

Régions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, North Slave Region

étiquettes: social sciences, climate change, northern perspective

Objectif(s): To understand the perspectives of residents in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and government representatives in Yellowknife on the replacement of the seasonal ice road with a permanent all-weather road.

Description du projet: In light of rapid environmental alterations due to climate change and the Canadian North’s history of boom-and-bust cycles, this research has two objectives. The first is to understand the perspectives of residents in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and government representatives in Yellowknife on the replacement of the seasonal ice road with a permanent all-weather road. The second is to discern who will benefit from ostensibly more permanent access to Tuktoyaktuk: residents, oil companies, or Canada as an “energy superpower” and “Arctic nation,” to quote former Prime Minister Stephen Harper? The Principal Investigator (PI) will conduct semi-structured interviews with Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk residents, Inuvialuit Settlement Region representatives, and government officials in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, and Yellowknife. The PI will drive on the winter road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk in its last seasons (March 2016 and March 2017), ideally by accompanying a local resident. If the highway to Tuktoyaktuk is complete by 2018, the PI will return to drive on that as well and speak with past interviewees about how the road has impacted themselves and their communities. The PI will speak with and interview local residents in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk to discuss their perspectives on the replacement of the seasonal ice road with the all-weather highway. At a larger scale, these views could also inform decisions about whether to replace ice roads with all-weather highways elsewhere in Canada. Particularly as climate change shortens the ice road season and increases the need to build more permanent infrastructure, such research into people’s views towards new roads, and their socioeconomic impacts, is timely. Once the results from the study are complete, the PI will share the results of the study by sending interview participants a copy of the paper(s), along with photographs taken while performing fieldwork in the NWT. The PI will also communicate the results of this study to other communities in the NWT or elsewhere in the Canadian North, such as in Manitoba, that are considering replacing their winter roads with all-weather highways. More broadly, the PI will communicate the results of this study to individuals and communities in the NWT through a long-running blog on the Arctic, Cryopolitics (http://www.cryopolitics.com). Special care will be taken to ensure that the identities of participants are not divulged in these blog posts, and everything will remain anonymous. Blog posts will be written in an accessible and non-academic manner so that the general public can relate to them. Additionally, posts from the blog are regularly syndicated by Radio Canada International, which allows them to reach individuals and communities in the NWT. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from March 19, 2017 to April 15, 2017.