Initiated by the US War Department in 1942, the Canol was a four-inch diameter steel pipeline built to carry crude oil across 800 km of taiga cordillera (Mackenzie and Selwyn Mountains) from the oilfields of Norman Wells to a refinery in Whitehorse. Despite enormous investment – of both capital and labour (approximately 30,000 workers) – the pipeline was abandoned after only fifteen months in operation. Old machinery, pump stations, and contaminated soils still litter the subarctic landscape, acting as an illustration of the social and environmental legacies of ephemeral resource projects in the Canadian North. The Doi T’oh Territorial Park and Shutagot’ine Trail Remediation Project have surfaced as economic development projects that stand in contrast to the resource extraction activities that have historically dominated the region, highlighting alternative and sustainable possibilities for resource use (e.g. recreational). The Canol Doc Project (2017), funded in-part by the UNBC Green Fund, brought five members of an all-female bikepacking team to the region to document the social and ecological impacts along the Canol Road.

The Natural Resources & Environmental Studies Institute (NRESi) at UNBC hosts a weekly lecture series at the Prince George campus. Anyone from the university or wider community with interest in the topic area is welcome to attend. Presentations are also made available to remote participants through Livestream and Blue Jeans. Go to http://www.unbc.ca/nres-institute/colloquium-webcasts to view the presentation remotely.

Past NRESi colloquium presentations and special lectures can be viewed on our video archive, available here.