Tuktoyaktuk is moving closer to completing a $21-million project that would provide the hamlet with much-needed visitor accommodation and a dedicated space to celebrate Inuvialuit culture.
The project – Saliqmiut: Tuktuuyaqtuuq Centre for Arts and Culture – aims to create spaces for performances, workshops, a museum, archives, accommodation and offices.
Project leader Annie Steen helped initiate a plan for Tuktoyaktuk to build a culture centre in 2017.
Steen previously told Cabin Radio that progress on the 23,000 sq ft facility – originally planned to open this year – was paused during the pandemic. This week, she confirmed the new completion target is 2027.
“We’ve made a lot of progress and reached quite a few milestones over the last year,” she said, adding that the site has been developed and the foundation piles are already in place.
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“We’ve had a couple of community celebrations and advising the community that we are proceeding with this project to build up some of the excitement, because this is a very important project for Tuk.”
“Completing the final design, seeing what it’s going to look like, picking the colours, picking all the furniture and the themes that were going in there – we’ve been busy doing that over the last three or four months,” said Steen, “and just making the project become more of a reality.”
The first phase, which includes a 26-unit modular hotel and 14 offices, is set to start receiving its component units in August. Currently, the only accommodation available in the hamlet is a single bed and breakfast. (Another business closed after its operator moved out of the hamlet.)
“There’s no other place. This is going to be a really important addition to welcome people to stay overnight in Tuk,” Steen said.
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Steen expects workers will need roughly seven months to assemble the two-storey building, with completion targeted for March 2026. According to her, coordinating contractors has been a challenge as on-site work involves connecting flooring, drywall, electrical and mechanical systems.
Once the units begin arriving in Tuktoyaktuk, roughly 15 workers will be on-site.
While timelines remain on track, she said the team is carefully managing logistics to avoid damage to the modular units as they travel along the gravel highway from Dawson City to Tuktoyaktuk.
After the hotel and office complex is complete, the project will enter its second phase: building a stick-built heritage centre, which is expected to take roughly a year to finish.
Steen described the heritage centre as “the most meaningful thing for this project.”
“When that is built, that’s when the excitement will really be anticipated for the community,” she said.
“There, we will showcase our Inuvialuit heritage and culture, and be able to share all our stories and all our precious art, artifacts, and everything in the facilities to tell the history of the Inuvialuit.”
Steen expects the overall project cost to slightly exceed the planned $21 million, though fixed-price contracts are in place for the hotel and office portion, estimated at $13 million. The amount also covers the land developed for the heritage centre.
Steen said the project wouldn’t have progressed without financial support from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and Inuvialuit Development Corporation, which enabled the team to successfully secure federal funding.
“It is a very large, complex project with lot of moving parts,” she said, “but we have a really good team that is able to handle the logistics of everything.”
