WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Canada's official motto translates as
"from sea to sea."

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But for many years now, there's been
an unofficial version:

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"from sea to sea to sea."

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Because Canada doesn't just
have west and east coasts,

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it has a north one as well.

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Just over that hill is Inuvik,

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a small town of about 3,000 people
in the Northwest Territories,

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about 200 kilometres
north of the Arctic Circle.

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But it's not on the Arctic Ocean.

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Until recently, this was the
end of the Dempster Highway,

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about as far north as you could
get by Canada's road system.

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There wasn't a continuous link
from sea to sea to sea.

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Except in winter when the ice was
frozen enough to support vehicles.

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But in 2017, after years of
difficult construction over the permafrost

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and hundreds of millions
of dollars in costs,

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an all-weather highway finally opened,
from here to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean.

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So for the first time, we can drive there.

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...or we could take a plane.

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RADIO: "ATC clear."

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It turns out that building an
all-weather highway across permafrost

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is an incredibly difficult
logistical challenge.

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It's now springtime.

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The thaw is beginning and
large sections of the highway,

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particularly in the south,
have pretty much turned to mud.

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There isn't quite enough gravel,

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it isn't compact enough,
it isn't cold enough.

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If your vehicle gets caught there,
you are hours from help

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and you have no cell phone service.

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So for safety, the government
has closed the road, at least for now.

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But sooner or later,
the road will be fixed

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and the highway will reopen

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and Tuktoyaktuk will be connected again.

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And that's going to change things here.

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- I was born and raised here.

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21 years ago(!)
- [laughter]

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- But anyways, I lived here all my life.

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Never going to move.
I enjoy my life here.

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There's just under 1,000 people
that live here year-round.

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We do a lot of fishing, lot of hunting,
berry picking, whatnot.

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Do the seasonal thing.

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When they got the go-ahead to finally
start building the road,

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it took about five years and they
would only work in the wintertime

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because the tundra is frozen.

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And they don't want to damage the tundra
because once the permafrost's at surface,

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it's gonna start melting.

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They would make ice bridges.

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Even to where they would
haul the gravel to us

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just so they don't do damage.

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Tuktoyaktuk is not isolated anymore.
It's supposed to be year-round.

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So if you want to go travel down south,

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you just hop on a vehicle,
if you own a vehicle,

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just head down.

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Whereas in summer months,
we'd be isolated.

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We'd wait for the
scheduled flights to come in

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or we go by boat,
if you own a boat.

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Most people were for it.

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They were hoping the prices would go down

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for groceries, gas, whatnot.

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And the gas price did go down a bit

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because we had a second
gas station open up.

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So that is one of the good things.

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It just gives more
opportunity for everybody.

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- Now I want to be clear.

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This is not some abandoned Arctic outpost.

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There's cell phone service here.

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There's a lot of people
and there's fast internet.

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Eileen, who I interviewed,
she runs the local taxi service.

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This is a proper town.
It's just very far north.

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The future of the Canadian Arctic
is unknown right now.

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Climate change means that
the permafrost is melting.

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Sea level rise is already
threatening this town.

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This highway is just going to be
one more change in a century of them.

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- We never did feel isolated
because we're from here.

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Yeah, we're just used to the way
we're living all the time.