IQALUIT - After several days of delay, the first fuel shipments to Iqaluit have begun.

The tanker Dorsch began pumping fuel into Iqaluit's tank farms Saturday, July 4. The Dorsch and the Tuvaq, two tankers travelling from Labrador, had been anchored off Iqaluit for several days waiting for the city's shore manifold to clear of ice.

"This is the game we play at the beginning of every season," said Todd McKay, operations manager of the Petroleum Products division of the Department of Community and Government Services.

He said the first fuel tankers of the season try to arrive in Iqaluit as early as possible and sometimes the changing weather conditions create delays.

Jean-Pierre Lehnert of Marine Communications and Traffic Services operations centre in Iqaluit said this year winds blew open the sea route as far as Frobisher Bay.

Based off Environment Canada's ice charts for the east coast, the tankers moved in expecting that Frobisher Bay would also be open. If not, a Coast Guard icebreaker was supposed to meet them and guide them into the bay.

That icebreaker, the Pierre Radisson, was delayed by an unexpected rescue operation in the Hudson Strait and scheduled maintenance operations it had to carry out on Coast Guard radio installations, according to Brian Riddell, the Coast Guard's regional superintendent of Arctic operations.

The tankers are ice class 1, capable of navigating heavy sea ice, but require the help of an icebreaker when they encounter ice thicker than they can handle.

Lehnert said the ice on Frobisher Bay is new ice formed over the past winter and nowhere near as hard as older, multi-year ice.

Another icebreaker, the Terry Fox, crossed the 60th parallel the morning of Thursday, July 2 to assist the tankers as needed, according to Riddell. It was expected to arrive at Frobisher Bay Friday.