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One of the crown jewels in the federal government’s Arctic strategy is mired in a slow-moving environmental clean-up and the threat of legal action, federal documents reveal.

The deep-water port at Nanisivik, Nunavut, remains under the control of the federal fisheries department, six years after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced with much fanfare the establishment of a naval refuelling station high in the northern archipelago.

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A private company — Breakwater Resources Ltd., owned by Nyrstar N.V., which operated a now-defunct zinc mine in the region — has yet to complete an environmental clean-up of a fuel tank farm, despite four years of pressure from the military.

Remediation of the property, which is Crown land, is necessary before the Department of National Defence can take possession.

Delays by the company to complete the work is a major risk to the project schedule and cost

“The property is still under the administration of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (and) the timing of the transfer will be determined in the near future,” said defence spokesman Maj. Andre Salloum, in an email.