Mary River Project
Iron-Ore Mine

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline
Natural Gas Development

Bathurst Inlet Port and Road Project
Transportation Hub

References

Dubbed the first “all-weather road” to link southern Canada to the Arctic Circle; the Dempster Highway was a vision of the late-Canadian Prime Minster John Diefenbaker. 

Officially opened on August 18, 1979, from start to completion the approximate 700-km gravel road took close to 20 years to complete and was built between Dawson City and Inuvik – linking the Yukon to the Northwest Territories.  The highway was intended to provide a critical supply-link due in part to the discovery of mammoth hydrocarbon deposits in the Mackenzie Delta during the late-1950s.  It was envisioned that a natural-gas pipeline would run adjacent to the highway and link to the now operational Alaskan pipeline.  Aboriginal opposition to commercial development in the Mackenzie Valley deflected any commercial developments until the early part of the new-millennium.  

 
Map of the Dempster Highway
Image Credit: PR Services Ltd.