Direction-finding facilities were finished and commenced operations in 1949. In 1950, it became part of the Atlantic high-frequency radio direction finding (HFDF) network after the Royal Canadian Navy and the US Navy agreed to coordinate and standardize their detection operations. The high cost of maintaining and supplying the base, however, led to it being shuttered in late summer 1952 and its equipment and personnel moved to Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island. The site was eventually adapted as the Kuujjuaq Airport, which now includes a Nav Canada air-traffic control facility that relays information on flights in northern Canada to Montreal. With more Inuit settling in the area during this time to assist the base, a Catholic mission was established in 1948 and was followed by an infirmary, a school, and a weather station. The HBC outpost at Fort Chimo was closed for months of repairs in 1957 after a major fire, and the post was moved closer to the airfield in 1960. The remaining families who had still lived around the old site finally joined the larger community, establishing present-day Kuujjuaq (although it did not receive that name until 1980). The HBC store was sold to Hudson's Bay Northern Stores in 1987. Since 1996, police services in the Kativik region, including Kuujjuaq, are provided by the Kativik Regional Police Force (KRPF). The headquarters of the KRPF are located in Kuujjuaq. Kuujjuaq lies upstream from Ungava Bay. Life in this community involves a close relationship with the river. Its tides regularly change the local landscape, while their rhythm strongly influences the traditional summer activities. Although the tree line is very close, the boreal forest is present around Kuujjuaq. Patches of black spruce and larch stand in marshy valleys. Kuujjuaq also witnesses annual migrations of the George River caribou herd. These animals pass through the region throughout August and September. With ocean access and two runways at the Kuujjuaq Airport, Kuujjuaq is the transportation hub of the entire region. The Avataq cargo ship delivers cargo once a year, and a new beach port has been built north of the town. There are no roads to outside the region, but there have been proposals floated by regional and provincial officials to build a road link from the south, linking to the Trans-Taïga Road and also providing access to Schefferville.