The Sahtu Research Support Centre has opened its doors to anybody planning to do research in and around Norman Wells.
The facility, operated by Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated (SSI), opened in the community in 2023, and aims to help researchers from universities and other organizations undertake their work in the region.
"We know the logistics here," said Todd McCauley, the centre's special projects advisor. "We know the hotels and can help with that. We can help with tracking down environmental monitors. Our economic development officer, Mkhabela [Masuku], can help [researchers] put packages together to save some time on logistics when people from from the south don't know what they're expecting up here."
The centre is located on Mackenzie Drive, beside the Heritage Hotel. It features four offices, a boardroom that seats roughly 10 people, and storage space.
Some of the storage space is already being occupied by researchers' equipment.
"We've got a storage room that the University of Alberta uses," McCauley said. "They're doing a permafrost study."
The centre is also in the process of collaborating with other researchers.
"We're engaging with University of Waterloo, Royal Roads University and the University of Manitoba to establish joint research opportunities," McCauley said. "We're trying to make it easy for their people to do research work up here is the gist of it, I guess."
There are ample research opportunities in the Sahtu, according to McCauley, and, in some respects, it benefits all of the region's communities when researchers come to town. Visitors spend money on accommodation, food, equipment rentals, and more SA国际影视传媒� all of which is an economic boon for the host community.
"They rent quads or snowmobiles in the winter, that sort of thing," McCauley said. "The accommodation and travel and the helicopters that are being used [are also economically beneficial]."
McCauley is optimistic that many more researchers will set up shop at the Norman Wells centre over the coming years.
He's also hopeful that the facility will help SSI advance the creation of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, which will connect the Sahtu to the rest of Canada, as water levels in the Mackenzie River continue to drop and winter ice roads become less feasible.
The facility's staff plan to do this by promoting climate change research and hosting seminars on the topic.
"We're always promoting the Mackenzie Valley Highway, and the impact of climate change on the Mackenzie River," said McCauley. "This fall, we'll host a workshop on the state of the low water levels in the river SA国际影视传媒� that should be in October."
