To: The Major Projects Office, Government of Canada 

From: The undersigned, submitted by the Kugluktuk Angoniatit Association

The land is central to who we are as Inuit. The Dolphin and Union caribou herd has sustained the Inuinnait of Kugluktuk for generations — and the proposed Grays Bay Road and Port (GBRP) would run directly through the most important harvesting ground we have left for this herd.

This isn't a guess. Our own research — peer-reviewed, and corroborated by the Government of the Northwest Territories' own Species at Risk Committee reassessment — shows the largest hotspot where our harvesters reliably find Dolphin and Union caribou sits right in the project's path. This herd has been assessed as Endangered since 2017. Canada's own legal deadline to act on that assessment passed nearly six years ago, even after the federal Minister accepted the case for listing in writing in 2022 and promised action "over the coming months." That promise is still unfulfilled.

Now Canada is considering fast-tracking GBRP as a "project of national interest" under the Building Canada Act — before the Nunavut Impact Review Board's own assessment is finished, and while Inuit rights holders remain divided. The Kitikmeot Inuit Association supports the project. The Hunters and Trappers Organizations of Kugluktuk and Burnside — the rights holders whose members actually harvest on this land — do not. Canada should not treat Inuit consent here as unanimous. It isn't.

What we are asking for

We call on the Major Projects Office to hold off on listing GBRP as a project of national interest until:

• the Nunavut Impact Review Board's treaty-based review is complete,
• the Dolphin and Union caribou's critical habitat is legally protected, and
• the divided consent of Inuit rights holders is honestly addressed — not overridden.

The review must come before the fast-track, not after. Sign this petition to tell Canada that.

Read our full petition letter. Watch our film. Visit kugluktukhto.org.