Northwest Territories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program and Nunavut General Monitoring Plan

Facilitating Governance and Partnerships

NWT CIMP and NGMP are designed to build on partnerships in order to align, coordinate and integrate environmental monitoring (NWT CIMP) and ecosystemic and socio-economic (NGMP) objectives and activities. These activities will establish standardized questions and priorities for monitoring in each of the valued component areas.

Collect, Analyze and Synthesize Data

NWT CIMP and NGMP work to establish baselines and adopt monitoring and analysis protocols for priority valued components. They also collect, or facilitate the collection of, information from various organizations and, where information gaps exist, provide coordination and funding for data collection and analysis.

Develop and Maintain an Information Management System

The programs work on the development and operation of an online information management system to consolidate monitoring information from different sources to facilitate data accessibility and analysis.

Report and Communicate

The programs develop and distribute communications and reports, including the comprehensive State of the Environment report every five years, and the Annual Summary of Knowledge report (NGMP only).

Community-Based Approach

All aspects of NWT CIMP and NGMP, including the design and execution of monitoring work, the analysis of results, and the interpretation and sharing of what it all means for the ‘bigger picture' of the northern environment, are informed by communities that are impacted by changes in the land, air and water. The community-based approach brings together northern residents, co-management boards, government, industry, non-government organizations, and scientists to work together to collect, analyze, and communicate traditional knowledge and scientific monitoring information on topics of high priority to the community.

Community-based monitoring helps to collectively improve our understanding of changes occurring in the environment and increase the ability of communities to identify, plan and adapt to these changes. At the same time, communities benefit from having community members trained in leading and carrying out monitoring activities. The NWT CIMP and NGMP Accomplishments section includes examples of community-based monitoring in action in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

A long-awaited northern project

Since the 1960s, construction of a year-round road linking Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk has been a high priority for the residents of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s several government departments undertook land surveys, engineering studies and environmental and socio-economic studies examining the costs and benefits of various routes and designs. The project was revived in 2009 with the confirmation that the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor) would fund the first stage of the regulatory process for the highway construction project.

Over the past five years, the project has undergone an in-depth environmental impact assessment in accordance with the Inuvialuit Final Agreement and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The Inuvialuit Settlement Region’s Environmental Impact Review Board formally approved development of the highway in January 2013. A ground breaking ceremony was held on January 8, 2014, marking the beginning of construction of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway.

Construction that protects permafrost

Constructing the all-season highway across permafrost and muskeg involves many technical environmental considerations including stream crossings and permafrost preservation to keep the ground under the road from sinking. Special construction methods and mitigation measures are required to protect the permafrost that is necessary for year-round road stability.

Given the unique and changing environmental conditions in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, project designers and decision makers need reliable regionally-specific data and analyses to make decisions about how best to plan for, execute, and manage the highway.

Providing northern data for design and mitigation

NWT CIMP has been collecting long-term baseline information in the project-area since 2004. Climate data, including air temperature is collected using a network of five meteorological stations. Ground temperatures are collected at multiple sites using thermistors and data loggers whereas permafrost conditions are monitored throughout the region using water jets or core drills. Ice wedges, thaw slumps and soil properties are monitored through core drilling, remote sensing, recording stratigraphy, sample collection and lab analysis. Monitoring activities are conducted by a team of experts from multiple organizations including AANDC and Carleton University’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.

In 2012 and 2013, NWT CIMP provided the Northwest Territories Department of Transportation and their consultants with multiple datasets and reports relevant to terrain hazards to produce detailed highway designs and mitigation plans. Datasets included air and ground temperatures, particularly in relation to stream crossings, ice wedge distribution, and thaw slump locations. These datasets and accompanying analyses will directly contribute to the quality of the designs and mitigation plans that the Department of Transportation will submit to the Northwest Territories Water Board and AANDC for review.

NWT CIMP continues to collect and compile data throughout the region to support regional decision making. This information is available to the public by contacting NWT CIMP at  nwtcimp@gov.nt.ca.

Need for robust, standardized landscape-level data

Past development and natural disturbance information is required by regulators, industry, communities and other stakeholders to support a range of development and planning decisions. Landscape-level information is critical for monitoring cumulative impacts; which is a constitutional obligation of the Sahtu, Gwich'in and Tlicho comprehensive land claim agreements and a statutory requirement of Part 6 of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act (MVRMA). For example, in the environmental assessment process, decision makers require accurate and detailed data on natural and human-induced changes in a project area to assess the potential cumulative effects of new projects. Similarly, wildlife managers require a robust and repeatable method of tracking natural and human disturbance in order to appropriately develop wildlife range management plans.

Linkage to regional decision making

The mapping of human and natural disturbance is not a new initiative. Several organizations have mapped or are currently mapping human and natural disturbance in the Northwest Territories. A critical initial step to developing a territory-wide inventory of landscape disturbances is cataloging and bringing together existing datasets, as these may form the foundation of future efforts. As an initial step towards a standalone inventory of landscape change, these datasets will be made available through the Northwest Territories Discovery Portal.

NWT CIMP, in collaboration with Golder Associates, has completed a Database of Human Development Activity for the Northwest Territories, including the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the Gwich’in Settlement Area, the Sahtu Settlement Area and the North and South Slave Regions. This information is available to the public through the Northwest Territories Discovery Portal and has been used in several recent regulatory processes, including the Dehcho Land Use Planning Process (ongoing), the Gahcho Kué Environmental Impact Review (2013), the Snap Lake Environmental Assessment (2006), the Taltson Hydroelectric Expansion Project Environmental Assessment (2008), and the Fortune Minerals Ltd. NICO Project Environmental Assessment (2013).

Building a comprehensive inventory to fill information gaps

The Northwest Territories currently lacks a comprehensive inventory of regional landscape change information which has implications for decision makers who must assess cumulative effects and make choices about land use and development over large areas. Compiling data on natural disturbances such as wildfires, landslides, and thaw slumping as well as human development and activity, such as contaminated sites, quarries and parks, is a critical input for cumulative effects assessment and land use planning. With growing interest in northern resource development, having a central inventory of landscape level information to inform sound regional land use and management decisions is timely.

A Collaborative Project

In collaboration with partners and stakeholders, NWT CIMP is leading an initiative to develop a Northwest Territories-wide Inventory of Landscape Change. NWT CIMP is well positioned to lead this work as the program was designed to assemble, share and analyze cumulative effects information needed by local and regional decision makers. NWT CIMP has developed a five-year Strategic Plan and workplan in conjunction with stakeholders. The workplan is now being implemented, including the compilation of existing human and natural disturbance datasets to the Northwest Territories Discovery Portal and establishing pilot projects to visually reference and add attribute information to human disturbance data.

The Northwest Territories Discovery Portal can be accessed at the provided link.

Changing hydrology in the Taiga Shield

The Taiga Shield is one of Canada’s largest ecozones. Stretching across much of the subarctic north, it covers about 29 percent of the Northwest Territories. It is dotted with millions of lakes and wetlands carved out by successive glacial cycles.

Across the circumpolar north, increases in winter streamflow are being documented. Monitoring results from this project show that watersheds in the North Slave Taiga Shield are experiencing greater autumn rainfalls which causes enhanced runoff into and through the winter. The consequences of these changes include higher chemical concentrations, particularly metals and nutrients, and more frequent icing development in channels.

Implications for site water management at Giant Mine

The abandoned Giant Mine is a former gold mine located near the City of Yellowknife. One of Canada’s largest contaminated sites, Giant Mine houses approximately 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust, a by-product of the ore processing. During mining operations, the dust was collected and transferred into underground storage areas at the mine site. The dust is soluble in water and is hazardous to both people and the environment.

Baker Creek flows directly through the Giant Mine site. Changes in winter streamflow in the creek are posing on-site water management challenges. The creek has the ability to flood the underground workings causing the release of arsenic trioxide to surface waters. In May 2011, the development of anchor ice in Baker Creek impeded flow and forced water into the floodplain causing a spill of contaminated tailings downstream from Giant Mine into Great Slave Lake. As baseline conditions change, water management will need to be adapted to address persistent streamflow throughout winter and icing development.

Monitoring results suggest that there will continue to be changes in aquatic chemistry, particularly increased metals and nutrients in Baker Creek. As a consequence, water licence limits related to these parameters may need to be re-evaluated and addressed through water treatment systems.

Linkage to regional decision making

Monitoring results for streamflow and aquatic chemistry on Baker Creek have informed various parties in the environmental assessment process for the Giant Mine Remediation Project (2013) and the Fortune Minerals Ltd. NICO Project (2013). The Giant Mine Remediation Project Team has used the monitoring results of this project to prepare the hydrology section of their Developer’s Assessment Report and to respond to information requests from the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board on icing development along Baker Creek and implications on local and regional water resources.

The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board has also considered this research in their Report of Environmental Assessment. They recommended that Baker Creek be diverted away from the Giant Mine site to avoid the potential risks of flooding of the underground mine workings (e.g. shafts, tunnels, underground storage areas).

Changing Ecological Stressors

Hudson Strait-Foxe Basin is one of the most ecologically rich marine corridors in the world, home to an extraordinary diversity and abundance of terrestrial and marine species such as Beluga, Ringed Seal, Narwhal, polar bears, Common Eiders, Black Guillemot, and Red-throated Loons. The region is also the marine gateway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Hudson Bay, western Baffin Island, and the Melville Peninsula, all of which are likely to experience resource development in coming years.

This projected development, as well as changes brought on by a warming climate, has the potential to bring detrimental effects to the region’s wildlife. The project team is working to collect strong baseline data on bird species and their habitats, as well as to develop a better understanding of the way in which the different ecosystem components interact and their likely responses to potential stressors. This data and assessment will be critical in informing decisions to protect the region’s wildlife and environment.

Increasing shipping activity, for example, has the potential to create wakes which flood bird nests located near water. To better understand this threat, the project team is conducting surveys to estimate the number and proportion of nests potentially susceptible to flooding. Similarly, a larger volume of shipping activity brings increased chances for industrial accidents such as oil discharges and ship grounding. The project team is identifying critical habitats for nesting and brood rearing – the raising and caring of ducklings from egg stage, which may have the potential to be damaged by such events.

Project researchers are also undertaking efforts to quantify the spread and severity of avian cholera outbreaks among northern Eider populations. Avian cholera is one of the most lethal diseases for birds in North America. While it has been present in southern Canada and the United States for many years, it has only been recently observed among Eiders in the North.

Utilizing Traditional Inuit Knowledge

The project team is working with local communities to incorporate and document Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as key component of monitoring research. In addition to hiring teams comprised of western scientists and Inuit guides, the project team is conducting interviews with community elders and other community members with intimate knowledge of wildlife in the study areas. To date, baseline information has been collected on critical bird habitats, vulnerability of marine birds in a changing North, and perspectives about relationships between polar bears, seals and alternative prey resources such as eider ducks.

Inuit community members and biologists currently working in the region have observed an increased frequency of polar bear sightings in bird colonies. It is hypothesized that a loss of summer sea ice due to increasing ship traffic and a warming climate impedes the polar bears’ ability to hunt for seal, forcing them to increase predation of birds and their eggs.

Sam Iverson and his colleagues at Carleton University are visiting these nesting sites in order to collect distribution and abundance data for marine birds and to investigate the destruction of the nesting sites by polar bears.

"In the company of extremely knowledgeable Inuit guides, we visited 140 nesting colonies and collected as much basic data as we could about all the species we encountered," recalls Iverson. "We saw 22 bears in all, and at one site, only 20 nests remained of the 500!"

Communication and Engaging Communities in Scientific Research

Training and capacity-building activities allow for valuable knowledge exchanges to take place between the project team and local community members from Cape Dorset, Coral Harbour and Kimmirut. The project relies heavily on the participation of local guides, who are employed to provide boating and logistical expertise. Concurrently, guides receive training in performing surveys of bird colonies and collecting biological samples, a practice which is instrumental in continuing to monitor environmental change over time.

Prior to starting the field research, the project team visits each community to discuss project planning. Research plans, rationale and results to date have been presented to the boards of the Hunters and Trappers Organizations of each community involved. This practice provides an opportunity to solicit input and recommendations from the boards and to engage in valuable discussions that inform the collection of TEK of the project area. After field work is complete, the project team issues reports to the various communities detailing the results of their field activities in the research area.

Outcomes and Future Direction

The project team has already reported a number of outcomes and highlights of their research to date. Hundreds of surveys of eider breeding colonies in the Hudson Strait-Foxe Basin region have been conducted, including the collection of samples to confirm the presence of avian cholera. The data collected has contributed to a better understanding of trends associated with the outbreaks, and provided evidence supporting the project team’s hypothesis that the disease is spread by eiders wintering in Canada through contact with Atlantic eider populations.

Researchers have also gathered scientific evidence supporting the local Inuit’s observations of greater polar bear predation on seabird colonies. At two of the long-term research sites, East Bay Island and Coats Island, the project team observed a greater than seven-fold increase in bear incursions into seabird colonies. They have also found a strong relationship between the presence of bears in these colonies and ice conditions, in that more bears are seen in seabird colonies in years with shorter ice seasons.

The future direction of this research involves understanding the combined stresses of disease and increased nest predation on eider ducks, as well as undertaking coastal sensitivity mapping based on data collected in the field.

A Rich Source of Baseline Data

The ILUOP was undertaken from 1972 to1975 by the Inuit of what was then the Northwest Territories as a major territory-wide community mapping project in preparation for the first stages of the land claims process. This record of Inuit land use and knowledge was developed from map-based interviews with elders and hunters in every Inuit community and satellite camp in the region.

"They put vellum paper over topographical maps and, at each community they visited, had hunters outline their paths and identify the species they hunted," explains Luigi Torretti, Senior Environment Officer with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.

Based on the age of the hunters interviewed, the time frame for land use and occupancy information contained within the database extends from the mid-1970s to as far back as the 1920s and 1930s, representing what is arguably the most comprehensive and detailed record of traditional land use and knowledge that presently exists for a hunting society anywhere in the world.

This data also represents an irreplaceable source of baseline data for scientific and monitoring purposes. The ILUOP captured information at a time when the Kitikmeot Inuit were still in their early years of living in permanent settlements and when industrial activity and development on the land was minimal. Given this, the data comprises an unparalleled baseline against which changes in Inuit cultural practices and the state of Kitikmeot wildlife can be detected, quantified and monitored.

Illustrating the Evolution of the Kitikmeot Region

The Kitikmeot Inuit Association currently maintains a traditional knowledge database that dates back to 1996 called the Naonaiyaotit Traditional Knowledge Project (NTKP). The project team has worked to integrate the ILUOP data into the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s existing knowledge database, resulting in a single system which provides a powerful tool by increasing accessibility and usefulness as well as bolstering the comparative and analytical value of traditional knowledge.

The information also broadens the geographic scope of the existing database which is much more focused on the western part of the Kitikmeot Region. This expanded scope and continuity of knowledge will be valuable in illustrating how the territory is evolving. NGMP is working to provide the frame within which the overall picture or tapestry of Nunavut can be woven to establish a baseline for comparison over time.

Supporting Education, Participation and Decision Making

The project team expects the digitized ILUOP will support education in local Kitikmeot communities as well as inform and facilitate Inuit participation in decision making that will help shape the future of the Kitikmeot Region.

Quantifying and presenting IQ/TK information in a manner that is usable during planning and decision-making processes can influence the conduct of industry, conservation groups, governments and co-management agencies. The database, for example, will support the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s mandate to take traditional land use into account as it undertakes leasing and licensing use of Inuit Owned Land. Additionally, it will aid the Kitikmeot Inuit in effectively participating in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement integrated resource management systems.

The project team is partnering with local schools and the Kitikmeot Heritage Society to promote the combined NTKP-ILUOP database as a valuable educational tool which demonstrates Inuit cultural vitality and shares the history of the Kitikmeot Inuit. Through their work, the project team has converted the data into accessible formats including maps, which support learning institutions develop culturally-relevant educational materials addressing history, science, geography and cultural and social studies.

The ILUOP information is an essential component of Inuit heritage, representing an irreplaceable source of knowledge and wisdom, and providing a tool that will inform and contribute to effective and sustainable decision making in the Kitikmeot Region.

Filling a Knowledge Gap

There is a knowledge gap in Nunavut related to the level of success attained by students with post-secondary education. Data that is considered critical in informing decisions around educational programming is often non-existent or inadequate to meet these needs, including basic statistics on graduation rates, the effectiveness of student funding programs, and the relationship between education and employment.

One of the primary reasons for this gap is the lack of access to post-secondary education in Nunavut. Apart from the limited number of programs available at Nunavut Arctic College, there is no university in Nunavut or elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic. This leads to many students travelling to Southern Canada to pursue further studies. While studying educational trends among Inuit students, Dr. Thierry Rodon of Laval University in Quebec City realized that no work was being done to track the success of these students.

"Because so much takes place outside, we have no overall view of post-secondary education in Nunavut, and no idea how these students fare when they return home," Dr. Rodon explains.

Since 2012, Dr. Rodon and his team have undertaken a research project to fill this gap and collect data on the successes of Inuit with post-secondary experience in Nunavut. The project team hopes this data will be used to improve decision making around educational programming and lead to better educational and professional outcomes for Inuit with post-secondary experience within and outside the territory. This involves gathering data on post-secondary educational success among Inuit students, professional success among Inuit with post-secondary education and the effectiveness of financial assistance programs for students.

Improved data on post-secondary education will contribute to more informed decision making and capacity building in Nunavut by enabling decision makers to understand and quantify the impact of post-secondary education on Inuit.

Expanding Our Conception of Success

The project team stresses the importance of expanding the conception of educational success, rather than limiting it to graduation rates and employment: "Though employment remains the benchmark, as always, we will try to work with a definition of success that goes beyond jobs and includes elements of personal satisfaction, as well", explains Dr. Rodon.

For many Nunavummiut, success is not necessarily tied to graduation. Many Inuit students who have attended post-secondary educational programs and never graduated are nevertheless successful in their careers and personal lives. Professional success can exist among students who have attended a post-secondary program but not necessarily graduated. Although research has been focused on educational success, studies in recent years have been looking at the broader notion of success and demonstrating that students who have not graduated or do not have official accreditation may nevertheless enjoy a tremendous amount of professional and personal success.

Sharing Results

In 2012–2013, the project hired two survey coordinators who worked with local Inuit researchers in 10 Nunavut communities. They surveyed 375 Nunavut Inuit with post-secondary experience to further examine the opportunities and challenges faced by Northerners. In February 2014, the results of the preliminary analysis were presented by the research team to Nunavut stakeholders in Iqaluit. The purpose was to share current and valid information to the decision makers to help inform programming. Considerations include improving English language training options and strengthening Inuktitut courses available to Nunavummiut.