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In the eyes of the Northwest Territories government and the energy industry, it’s painfully ironic that the Beaufort Sea contains an estimated 56 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 8 billion barrels of oil while remote communities such as Inuvik, Iqaluit and many more rely on LNG or diesel shipped in from southern Canada for power.

“We’re trucking LNG all the way from Delta to burn it in Inuvik,” Northwest Territories premier Bob McLeod said, calling the situation a missed opportunity.

Inuvialuit Regional Corp. chair Duane Smith has in recent months called for development in the Beaufort Sea so that Inuvik and nearby Tuktoyaktuk could generate their own gas-fired power, rather than importing it all the way from southern B.C.

Photo by Bill Braden/The Canadian Press

The IRC has done a feasibility study on drilling wells in the region and Smith has said a few wells show potential.

Overall, onshore and offshore oil and gas development in Canada’s North has come to a complete standstill in recent years thanks in part to the fall in oil prices and abundant supplies in less expensive regions like Alberta and B.C. A federal moratorium on new offshore licences in the Arctic in 2016 has ensured that drilling activity in the region has all but ceased.

Jessica Shadian, the president and CEO of Arctic 360 and a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, said there is some resentment in the territories that part of Ottawa’s response to climate change has attempted to put the North “in a snow globe” so that “a bunch of people in southern Canada can feel good about it.”