Year-round road linking Nunavut and NWT gets $21.5 million for study

[Kniwt]

The CBC reports:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/grays-bay-rankin-airport-federal-funding-1.5245168

... Another $21.5 million will be used to complete preparatory work on the Grays Bay Road and Port project, a proposed 230-kilometre all-season road that would eventually be part of a road connecting Nunavut to the Northwest Territories and, therefore, the rest of Canada.

That proposal was put forward by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Akeeagok said.

The preparatory work will consist of "field studies, including geological investigation, preliminary and detailed design, environmental assessment, as well as permitting and approvals needed before the construction of the Grays Bay Road and Port project can begin,"  Garneau said.

The road would run from the site of the now-defunct Jericho diamond mine, which is located at the northern end of the Tibbit-Contwoyto winter road, to a deep-sea port at Grays Bay on Coronation Gulf.

... Another of 450-kilometre road will also be studied from this pot of funding.

The government of Nunavut along with the Kivalliq Inuit Association pitched a study on the possibility of a road connecting Rankin Inlet to Chesterfield Inlet, Whale Cove and Arviat.

[Alps]

Will there be any fuel along this road? Otherwise it doesn't help us much.

[vdeane]

Would they also plan to make at least the part of the winter road connecting this proposal to the rest of the road system an all-season road?

[The Ghostbuster]

Will this road be paved? Or will it just be a gravel road?

[kphoger]

Will this road be paved? Or will it just be a gravel road?

Did you read the article?  It says it would connect to a winter road.  Hiiiiiiiiiiighly doubt that would be paved.

[MNHighwayMan]

It'd be a waste of money to pave a road that far north. The surface wouldn't last three years.

[Alps]

Would they also plan to make at least the part of the winter road connecting this proposal to the rest of the road system an all-season road?

Likely planned to be upgraded in situ south of there separately.

[Duke87]

Will there be any fuel along this road? Otherwise it doesn't help us much.

Also doesn't help the average leisure traveler reach Nunavut by land by virtue of not actually connecting to the rest of the North American roadway network.

It is already possible to drive to Nunavut two months out of the year using the existing ice road... if you're prepared to bring enough fuel to make it there and back from Yellowknife, and enough supplies to handle your own meals and lodging in the subzero temperatures that make an ice road possible (you would need to overnight, it is reportedly a 14 hour drive each way).

The proposed road, if built, wouldn't change any of that.

Indeed, it isn't meant to - the purpose is to connect mines in Nunavut with a port on the NW Passage. Not to connect them with the rest of North America by land.