While Covid temporarily grounded all of Points Athabasca’s activities to a halt for awhile, one long-awaited project in the Athabasca region began construction this spring.
After decades of lobbying, construction on a road that was started in the Athabasca region in 2008 began again. The road will connect Hatchet Lake and Wollaston Lake to highway 905. Points Athabasca has been contracted to build the road. “This has been on everyone’s radar screen for many years, and the efforts of current and past leadership in the community, the PAGC, and Hatchet Lake Development towards bringing this project to fruition are to be commended,” says John Scarfe, CEO of Points Athabasca. “As a locally owned company, we’re really happy to be part of it and to work with the communities to employ local residents on this exciting initiative for the north.”
The communities of Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation and Wollaston Lake are currently only accessible by air, ice road and ferry. The ice road is only driveable for a few months, and ferry also has a short season. Year-round access is only available by air. Points Athabasca has a strong understanding of roads and transportation in the remote area. “We have been working with the communities and the mines in the area for over twenty years, and we’ve built strong relationships during that time,” says Scarfe. “We have experience with building roads and the logistics of the area, which is important knowledge to have for the successful execution of this project. We also work primarily with local operators to maintain most of the ice roads from Stony Rapids all the way to Uranium City, and we maintain the all-season road from Points North to Stony Rapids. It’s a total of over 400km of roads that we maintain annually in the area.”
Employing local people is essential to the success of the project. “‘Building Capacity’ and employing local people wherever possible is a key theme for our company,” says Scarfe. “We spent a bit of time out there in the spring clearing trees, and we employed 3 local people during that time – two CAT operators and a trackhoe operator. We were on pause for a bit to allow for spring melt to occur, and we went back at it in August. Now we’re running again and we have the same equipment running, plus a group of local people with chainsaws who are doing work to clear the trees. We expect to employ 6-10 local people for the remainder of the project.”
Indigenous Services Canada is contributing $6.5 million over a two-year period. The province is contributing $250,000 and will maintain the road, which is
estimated to cost $250,000 annually, but will provide considerable cost savings by reducing the need for a barge and ice road in addition to the benefits to the community of year-round access.
The new road will be 102km long. The funding will cover the costs for a portion of the first phase of the project, which will result in a snow road. Phase 2 would be a seasonal road that would be good for about ten months of the year. “We expect this current phase of the project to be complete in 14 months,” says Scarfe. “Eventually, the hope is that an all-season road will be built.”
Because the construction all takes place outdoors, and employs local people, this project was able to continue throughout Covid. “The safety of our employees, subcontractors and the community members is our top priority,” says Scarfe. “Luckily it’s been easy to maintain social distancing due to the nature of the work, and employing local people means we don’t need to worry about camps at this time.”
The project came at a good time for the company. “All our other projects were paused earlier this year to ensure everyone’s safety during the early days of Covid,”says Scarfe. “We unfortunately had to downsize a fair bit to adjust to that reality. But we are seeing other projects, such as Gunnar, coming back and there are signs that activities are slowly starting up again. It’s impossible to tell what happens next, but so far we’ve been able to make accommodations and adjust as needed.”
After decades of lobbying, construction on a road that was started in the Athabasca region in 2008 began again. The road will connect Hatchet Lake and Wollaston Lake to highway 905. Points Athabasca has been contracted to build the road. “This has been on everyone’s radar screen for many years, and the efforts of current and past leadership in the community, the PAGC, and Hatchet Lake Development towards bringing this project to fruition are to be commended,” says John Scarfe, CEO of Points Athabasca. “As a locally owned company, we’re really happy to be part of it and to work with the communities to employ local residents on this exciting initiative for the north.”
The communities of Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation and Wollaston Lake are currently only accessible by air, ice road and ferry. The ice road is only driveable for a few months, and ferry also has a short season. Year-round access is only available by air. Points Athabasca has a strong understanding of roads and transportation in the remote area. “We have been working with the communities and the mines in the area for over twenty years, and we’ve built strong relationships during that time,” says Scarfe. “We have experience with building roads and the logistics of the area, which is important knowledge to have for the successful execution of this project. We also work primarily with local operators to maintain most of the ice roads from Stony Rapids all the way to Uranium City, and we maintain the all-season road from Points North to Stony Rapids. It’s a total of over 400km of roads that we maintain annually in the area.”
Employing local people is essential to the success of the project. “‘Building Capacity’ and employing local people wherever possible is a key theme for our company,” says Scarfe. “We spent a bit of time out there in the spring clearing trees, and we employed 3 local people during that time – two CAT operators and a trackhoe operator. We were on pause for a bit to allow for spring melt to occur, and we went back at it in August. Now we’re running again and we have the same equipment running, plus a group of local people with chainsaws who are doing work to clear the trees. We expect to employ 6-10 local people for the remainder of the project.”
Indigenous Services Canada is contributing $6.5 million over a two-year period. The province is contributing $250,000 and will maintain the road, which is estimated to cost $250,000 annually, but will provide considerable cost savings by reducing the need for a barge and ice road in addition to the benefits to the community of year-round access.
The new road will be 102km long. The funding will cover the costs for a portion of the first phase of the project, which will result in a snow road. Phase 2 would be a seasonal road that would be good for about ten months of the year. “We expect this current phase of the project to be complete in 14 months,” says Scarfe. “Eventually, the hope is that an all-season road will be built.”
Because the construction all takes place outdoors, and employs local people, this project was able to continue throughout Covid. “The safety of our employees, subcontractors and the community members is our top priority,” says Scarfe. “Luckily it’s been easy to maintain social distancing due to the nature of the work, and employing local people means we don’t need to worry about camps at this time.”
The project came at a good time for the company. “All our other projects were paused earlier this year to ensure everyone’s safety during the early days of Covid,”says Scarfe. “We unfortunately had to downsize a fair bit to adjust to that reality. But we are seeing other projects, such as Gunnar, coming back and there are signs that activities are slowly starting up again. It’s impossible to tell what happens next, but so far we’ve been able to make accommodations and adjust as needed.”
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