The Project

The Grays Bay Road and Port Project (GBRP) is a proposed transportation infrastructure development that would build a deep-water port on the Coronation Gulf at Grays Bay, Nunavut, connected to the existing winter road network by a 230-kilometre all-season gravel road running south to Contwoyto Lake near the Nunavut-Northwest Territories border. If completed, it would be the first all-weather road and deep-water port facility on Canada's Western Arctic coast.

The project is being developed by West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. (WKR), whose largest shareholder is an affiliate of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association (KIA), the democratically elected representative body for the Inuit of the Kitikmeot region. In March 2026, ATCO Ltd. acquired a 40% stake in WKR through a $10-million staged investment, adding one of Canada's largest infrastructure companies to the ownership structure.

What the Project Includes

The GBRP is not simply a road and a dock. The full scope of the project as outlined in the Impact Statement filed with the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) in early 2026 includes:

• A 230-km all-season gravel road from the vicinity of Contwoyto Lake to Grays Bay on the Coronation Gulf
• A deep-water export terminal with two large wharves capable of accommodating 100,000 DWT ore carriers, polar icebreakers, offshore patrol ships, and patrol submarines
• One medium-vessel wharf and two barge landing areas, one with roll-on, roll-off capability
• A small craft harbour with boat launch
• A 6,000-foot airstrip with associated facilities
• Supporting infrastructure including fuel storage, maintenance buildings, and accommodation

The dual-use design is notable: the port would serve both civilian mineral export and Canadian military operations, giving it strategic significance beyond its commercial function.

Who Is Behind It

The project has an unusual ownership structure that distinguishes it from typical resource extraction proposals. The Kitikmeot Inuit Association holds the majority stake in WKR, making this an Inuit-led development. The KIA represents approximately 6,500 Inuit across the five communities of the Kitikmeot region.

Key entities involved include:

• West Kitikmeot Resources Corp. (WKR) — The project proponent and developer, which also holds mineral tenure along the project route
• Kitikmeot Inuit Association — Majority shareholder through an affiliate entity
• ATCO Ltd. — 40% owner since March 2026; provides engineering and logistics expertise
• Nunami Stantec Limited — An Inuit-owned partnership with Stantec, providing engineering and environmental consulting since 2016
• Canada Infrastructure Bank — Has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for project accelerator funding

Why It Matters

The Kitikmeot region of Nunavut has no permanent roads connecting it to the rest of Canada. Supplies arrive by seasonal sealift, winter ice roads, or expensive air freight. The region also sits atop some of the richest undeveloped critical mineral deposits in the world, including the Izok Lake zinc-copper deposit and the High Lake copper-zinc deposit, which cannot be economically developed without surface transportation and port access.

The project intersects multiple national priorities: critical mineral security, Arctic sovereignty, Indigenous economic self-determination, military presence in the North, and the tension between resource development and environmental protection in one of the planet's most sensitive ecosystems.