First road to Canada’s Arctic coast breaks ground

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially broke ground Wednesday on the $185 million first all-season highway to Canada’s Arctic coast, hoping to open up resource development in the far north. The extension of the Dempster Highway is to connect Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, a hamlet on the Arctic coast currently accessible only by winter ice road, barge or air. At latitude 70 degrees North, above the Arctic Circle, Tuktoyaktuk will become the furthest point on the North American continent connected by land, once construction is completed in 2018. It would also become a crucial disembarkation point for oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea. The highway “will, for the first time by road, connect and unify Canada from sea to sea to sea,” Harper said in a statement.