Nanisivik Naval Facility

Nanisivik (near Arctic Bay), NU · Federal · Government of Canada · Admiralty Inlet (Baffin Island, near the Northwest Passage)

The Nanisivik Naval Facility is a Royal Canadian Navy docking and refuelling station built at the former Nanisivik lead-zinc mine site on Baffin Island, near the entrance to the Northwest Passage. It consists of a deep-water wharf/jetty, two 3.75-million-litre (unheated) fuel storage tanks connected to the jetty by pipeline, a site office, and a wharf operator's shelter; it was designed to fuel and dock the Harry DeWolf-class Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships and other government vessels for roughly four to five weeks each year during the open-water season. The project, announced by PM Stephen Harper in 2007, ran years behind schedule and over budget (about $110.8 million invested, with ~$200 million more needed to make it fully operational). As of May 2026 the Department of National Defence announced it was abandoning efforts to bring the facility into full operation, placing it in non-operational caretaker status and considering divestment.