What has been dubbed as the ‘Great Wall of Tuktoyaktuk was made of over 160,000 tons of granite rock and took 8 years to build, but is yet to be complete. The wall is protecting about 25 per cent of the hamlet but Mayor Erwin Elias of Tuktoyaktuk says it will need to be extended to protect the community from continuing coastal erosion which has been going on for over 30 years.
“The community tried to do some shoreline protection as much as they could and they were all band aid fixes. It never worked we lost a lot of landscape in the last 30 to 40 years to a point where there was an urgency to get some kind of proper design which we have today,” said Mayor Elias.
The wall of rock was built to prevent erosion and impacts from the Arctic ocean that have the potential to destroy the beloved Inuvialuit hamlet.
“The structure is at the Tuck Island, it’s there for a wave break,” explained Mayor Elias.
“It’s stopping the storm surges and the wave action,” he told True North FM.
There are many areas of the community which need protections from the water coming in, due to rising sea levels, an impact of climate change.
“So that is what that is doing over at the Tuck island and then over on the coastline we have the rock armour, that’s covering the exposure of the permafrost,” he pointed out.
The community will need more funding to save their home, which has much history and culture going back countless generations.
“We need to get more funding to do more protection. What we have here is probably 25 per cent of the community done and now we’ve got a lot more to go. We’ve go the whole inner harbour that needs to be dealt with, there’s huge issues there, the harbour being the livelihood of the community, especially with the fishing. That needs a lot of work,” said Mayor Elias.
There is also a hole in the harbour that needs to be protected.
Two and a half years ago, when the community received the funding support to build the wall, they had worked quickly to meet the deadline.
“So what is significant, especially having to haul the rock from probably 60, kilometres away from Tuck. So, we brought all the rock and we were able to complete the project in two years,” reflected Mayor Elias.
That’s 164, 000 tons of granite rock that was used to create the barrier.
“Now we close the file and we put another proposal together to continue to do further protection,” affirmed Mayor Elias.
In the meantime, the community is working to continue to find solutions and a long term plan.
“So the Project that’s completed today has a lifespan of 30 years. So, The argument we made was to give us the funding so that we can protect the community while we figure out what is the next steps going forward – Do we continue to put barriers up and rock armour along the coastline so that we can continue to stay or do we start relocating? That was the argument we made and then the plan going forward is just to continue to lobby for support, funding” said Mayor Elias.
“Community members, everybody sees it, sees what’s going on. And they understand what we’re doing today. We have everybody on board now that understands that we have to do shore line protection. We can’t sit and wait anymore and try to put little band-aid fixes here and there. So, the objective, moving forward is to continue protecting the coastline,” he continued.
With the previous project, the community had to do feasibility studies and engineering modelling to plan the wall.
“And then we had to put proposals together. So I think we’re way ahead of the game today. Moving forward, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We have a really good idea and we’ve shown what we can do and we’ve done it successfully in a really timely manner. So, I think it’s a lot easier to put a proposal together. Going forward now, which would speed up a lot of time,” he pointed out.
Mayor Elias is hoping to have a proposal going out by the new year to complete the wall.
I think we got roughly 25 percent of the community done. And super important, for the territorial and federal government to know that, if we don’t complete the other 75, this community is in jeopardy. So, we need to continue to get the support. And I think that they need to take it very serious, in regards to that, that we’re here today.”
