Large-scale marine development projects (mineral, oil and gas, infrastructure) proposed for Canada's North /

The number of natural resource development projects in Canada's North has increased substantially in recent years, and this trend is expected to continue or accelerate in the future. Several of these development projects have or are expected to have a marine component that involves marine shipping, infrastructures, or both. In this report, we summarize the available information on current, developing, and planned large-scale resource development projects (mineral, oil and gas, infrastructure) in Canada's North with the objective of using the current profile of projects as a planning guide for related studies, and for determining where baseline data for marine wildlife and habitat might be needed for assessing potential effects of these projects. The majority of mineral development projects currently planned to enter production between now and 2020 are located in Labrador (n=4), Québec (n=6), and Nunavut (n=8). Over the same period, oil and gas exploration activity is planned to be concentrated in the Labrador Sea, the Beaufort Sea, and the Mackenzie Delta. Seven major infrastructure projects, not directly related to natural resource exploitation, are planned to be operational by 2020.