Thanks to $368,000 from Ottawa, Yukon College hopes to design and make use of systems that show possible risks related to permafrost, including landslides and ground subsidence.

The funding is to focus efforts on sites along the Dempster Highway.

The announcement was made Tuesday morning by federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau at the college. It was later referenced in his remarks at the opening of a major investment conference.

“There’s really a question of understanding what happens with climate change and permafrost warming,” he told the Star shortly after his formal speech.

“How can we build a warning system into it so that maybe you know ahead of time that ground is going to collapse in the while, something’s going to be happening, too much heating is going on, that kind of thing.”

The minister predicted the funds would be useful in supporting things like equipment and travel. He addressed the latter topic while speaking about drones and their usefulness for remote communities.

Permafrost during warmer temperatures isn’t a foreign concept to the territory: multiple Yukon governments have been plagued with the troubled Ross River School for years. It has thawing permafrost to thank for its shifting foundation.

With the school costing more than $7 million to build, $2 million to re-level and $3 million in a number of studies and repairs, it can be a costly endeavour to fix.

That led Garneau to acknowledge the funding isn’t something to sneeze at.

“It’s incredibly important,” he said of the grant. Monitoring permafrost is significant not just for roads and airports but structures as well, he noted.

“It has a very important bearing on where you build your house, for example, and if you’re building it unknowingly in a certain way on permafrost, later on, there could be shifting of the earth.

“It can create all sorts of complications.”

A release on Tuesday’s announcement echoed this, noting that climate change can “threaten the efficiency, safety and reliability of northern transportation.”

That’s where funding for the research that shows what areas are best to build on, for instance, can come in handy.

The minister recalled being shown similar research that morning, and acknowledged there were “small patches” of permafrost in the city as well.

“Ultimately, what you want to do is build solid houses, and if you can’t get below the permafrost and anchor your home or building on a foundation, then you may want to reconsider where you’re going to build it or you may want to develop other technologies that will allow you to build on that kind of a structure – maybe limiting the weight, those kinds of things.”

In the specific case of the school, the Star confirmed last week that the government is now looking to cool the crawl space at the site, which could come up to a cost of $1 million.

That’s based off an estimate listed in a forecast, the tender for which is expected this month.

“Very important research is being done, I suspect they’ll be doing even more of it in the years to come,” Garneau smiled, echoing that “climate change has a disproportionate effect in the North.”

The project falls under the Northern Transportation Adaptation Initiative, with the college’s one covering two years (beginning this year).

Other sites looked at through the project are the Iqaluit Airport in Nunavut and in Tasiujaq and Salluit in Nunavik, Que.

This is Garneau’s third visit to the territory. He also ventured here in the mid-1980s, when he was still an astronaut.

Meanwhile, the Arctic Indigenous Investment Conference is being held at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre and Coast High Country Inn. The event will see federal delegates and other officials offer insights on things like investing in infrastructure, cannabis and the arts.

Carrying into today, the event will also feature an announcement from Garneau’s colleague, Amarjeet Sohi, who heads the natural resources portfolio.