.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

Flanked by Coast Guard ice breaker Pierre Radisson, a sealift vessel sits at anchor in the waters off Iqaluit in July 2006. - NNSL file photo

IQALUIT - Nunavummuit will no longer be able to get frozen food shipped on the annual sealift unless they order large amounts.

Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. (NSSI), the only company which carried small orders of frozen foods last year, will no longer accept orders smaller than an entire freight container.

Waguih Rayes, general manager of NSSI, said shipping small cartons of frozen foods was "not feasible" given the nature of the industry.

Orders for perishable foods arrive for loading in Montreal at the last minute to minimize the time the food is in transit, but that plays havoc with the shipping company's loading and departure schedule.

Then, while the ship is en route, the temperature of the refrigerated cargo needs to be constantly monitored by the crew.

Finally, at the destination port the food needs to be unloaded and received by the customers as quickly as possible. If a customer does not show up to pick up their food quickly the food may go bad. Rayes said if a customer receives a rotten order the shipping company can't prove that it wasn't at fault so that can be a financial loss for the company.

Johanne Lepine, a manager at Marche Turenne, the food distributor many in Nunavut order from, said her company had 96 customers who make small orders in the territory, mostly private individuals rather than companies.

She said the company had received many complaints from Nunavut, especially from people who wanted to order frozen meat.

She said some customers had expressed frustration that the food and meats they wanted were not reliably available from their local Northern stores.

Very few businesses in Nunavut use the sealift for frozen foods. Most get their frozen foods locally or by plane through food mail. NSSI's food transportation is mainly of non-perishable goods such as canned foods or rice.

A manager of one unnamed Iqaluit company said it did not use the NSSI sealift for frozen foods because it was not reliable.

NSSI's Rayes suggested if people want to order frozen foods they should organize with others to get an entire container-full together.

"If the compressor goes bad on the boat you could end up losing everything," he said.

NSSI is considering what to do in light of the complaints it has received. Rayes anticipated the company would issue a formal statement on the matter in May.

"We're trying to re-evaluate the situation because a few people have called in and complained," he said.