WHITEHORSE – The Yukon government said today work has begun on the Dempster Fibre Line project, an 800-kilometre fibre run that will connect Dawson City, Yukon, and Inuvik, Northwest Territories, along the Dempster Highway.
ROHL Global Networks, in partnership with Dagoo Services, has been awarded a $67 million dollar contract for the construction of the Dempster Fibre Line. From this, more than 20% of the contract value will be subcontracted to First Nations businesses, notes the press release. Construction of the fibre line will begin this summer in Dawson City and is scheduled to be complete in 2024.
Dagoo Services is a strategic joint venture comprising Gwitchin and First Nations businesspeople and a local Yukon contractor, Put Put Contracting.
The project’s design has benefitted from extensive First Nation and community consultations. “As a result of these discussions, project operations will ensure protection of heritage, social and cultural resources and minimization of environmental impacts with special consideration for the protection of permafrost, wetlands, caribou and nesting birds,” it reads.
This line will connect to the existing Mackenzie Valley Fibre Link which runs from Inuvik to Fort Simpson, B.C., and complete a redundant loop so when there is a fibre cut in the Yukon, digital life can go on. So much of the Far North depends on single fibre extensions that when there is damage to the wire, everything from home internet to debit transactions and anything else reliant on IP communications ceases, until it is spliced back together.
This project is funded by the Government of Canada through its Connect to Innovate Program and Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, as well as investments from the Government of Yukon and Northwestel.
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Photo borrowed from the Yukon government web site.
