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INUVIK
Inuvik's marine traffic control centre, and nine others throughout the North, will shut down as Canadian Coast Guard marine communications and traffic services centres are being centralized to Iqaluit.

Twenty-two centres that act essentially as traffic controllers are being reduced to 12; in the NWT, that means that all communications will now flow through Iqaluit.

Doug Alpen, officer in charge at the Inuvik Marine Communications and Traffic Service (MCTS) centre, said that this news, which made headlines across the country last week, is no surprise to those working for the coast guard in Inuvik.

It was announced last October that the Inuvik centre would be closing after one more season, Alpen told Inuvik Drum. The centre operates seasonally, from spring thaw to freeze-up. The first day of operation for the Inuvik MCTS centre this season was May 17.

"We will complete the season this year and when everything ices up, we close the centre down and that will be the end of the Inuvik centre," said Alpen. "You can't just sort of turn off the switches; you need to be ready with the switches in the other place to turn it on. So the best decision there was to keep us running for another season while we install equipment in Iqaluit."

The Inuvik centre employs four marine communications employees and one electronics technologist. While they have been notified of the closure of the centre well in advance, these employees are still unclear on their future employment.

"We are on workforce adjustment and we will be administered under that program," said Alpen. "No decisions have been made as yet."

He could not comment on whether or not any or all of the employees at the Inuvik centre would retain their jobs and be moved to the Iqaluit centre.

Alpen said this move will not affect service in Northern waterways.

"These reductions in centres will not reduce the service to the public," said Alpen. "(In Inuvik) we will not reduce the service because that will be administered out of the Iqaluit centre."

The Inuvik MCTS centre services marine traffic in a large swath of the North, including Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie River, the Beaufort Sea, and much of the Arctic Ocean.

The main function of MCTS centres, like the one currently in Inuvik, is to monitor and respond to distress calls in its service area, said Alpen.

"We provide a coast guard radio service which is mainly concerned with distress, urgency and safety, and we support international SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) agreements," he said. "We have an international requirement to provide those services (by) monitoring radio frequencies to provide assistance to persons in distress."

Once services have been centralized to Iqaluit, if there was a distress call made by a vessel in the waters near Inuvik, the emergency response process for that call would not be affected in any way, according to Alpen.

The centres also provide other radio services such as weather broadcasts and notices for shipping. Another major function of these centres is to track and guide ships in the area.

"The traffic portion of it is just like air traffic control but on the water," said Alpen.

Representatives from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada were not available to comment as of press time, however, in a press release announcing the change, the department cites "new and more effective radio and navigation technology" as the reason for the reduction in the number of centres.

"For example, in the 1990s, the coast guard used new technology to go from 44 centres to 22 centres," the release states.

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