Tuk mayor says coastal armouring saved hamlet during 2025 storm surge

Last summer, Tuktoyaktuk installed a new shore defence that immediately faced a historic storm surge event. The hamlet’s mayor credits the defence, known as a revetment, with saving the community.

Revetments are a form of armour that can help to protect against erosion, which is an increasing threat to Tuktoyaktuk, an Arctic coastal community of 1,000 people.

If the revetment had not been there, “my assumption is we would have lost a lot of the community,” said Mayor Vince Teddy, “and probably would have [had] an emergency situation.”

Teddy says the hamlet had been working on erosion mitigation since the 1990s – “without any engineering or research or science, or any input” – because something needed to be done to protect its shoreline.

The island sheltering Tuk’s harbour is eroding two metres every year, and researchers have said it could be breached in 20 to 25 years.

Work on the latest efforts to slow erosion – quarried armoured stone revetments placed along Tuk’s harbour and the island – began formally in 2018 with a partnership between the hamlet, GNWT, federal government and Inuvialuit Regional Corporation.

Options considered included nature-based solutions, a concrete slab revetment similar to something the community was already using, and a concrete block mattress. The quarried armoured stone revetment was chosen because of its flexibility to adapt to land slumps from permafrost thaw and its ability to withstand force from waves.

The revetment stacks large stones – a metre in diameter or bigger – on top of smaller stones to absorb the impact from waves and ice. Before installing the revetments in Tuk, the design was tested at National Research Council facilities in conditions simulating the Beaufort Sea, which helped refine the design and save money, according to a recent GNWT webinar on the project.

Teddy said the revetment, which was constructed in the winters to limit the impacts on permafrost and took two years to complete, was nearly done when a storm surge in August 2025 flooded the community, damaging buildings and roads.

Community members are now monitoring the revetment alongside a beach nourishment project, at the hamlet’s south end, where waves are used to push rocks to eroded parts of the shoreline.

Collaborative funding approach

Over the longer term, the hamlet continues to discuss the possibility of relocating further inland.

In the meantime, Teddy said, erosion mitigation work is still needed along the inner harbour, west harbour near the airport, and water reservoir. The hamlet also wants to make an access road that is above predicted storm surge levels.

The community hopes to fund the work through an Inuvialuit Regional Corporation application to the federal Arctic Infrastructure Fund on behalf of Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tuk and Ulukhaktok.

Atul Deshmukh, the senior administrative officer for Ulukhaktok, said a joint application and collaborative work increase the chances the funding is approved.

A Transport Canada spokesperson said proposals are currently being assessed, but confirmed the IRC applied to the second stream of funding intended for smaller scale projects “that improve regional connectivity, strengthen supply chains, and enhance emergency response capabilities,” according to the fund’s website.

Deshmukh said Ulukhaktok’s shoreline in Queen’s Bay is being eroded by storms, changes in wind direction, weather patterns and currents.

He said the hamlet is working with the National Research Council and Natural Resources Canada to study the potential 30 to 50-year impacts of storm surges. That work involves community engagement to ensure traditional knowledge is included, he said.

Deshmukh said Ulukhaktok is in the process of updating its community plan, zoning bylaw and climate adaptation strategy. It received $70,000 in August from the federal Green Municipal Fund and was the only community from the three territories included in that funding announcement. Deshmukh said the hamlet is also developing a master drainage plan so it can drain water from the spring thaw in a way that “it should not erode coastline.”

The IRC declined to comment on the funding application. Cabin Radio was not able to reach community officials in Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour.