Early ice stalls sealift
Not all goods from sealift made it to community by coast guard ship
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 27, 2014
KITIKMEOT
Some sealift goods did not arrive at their destinations before winter ice conditions set in at Kugaaruk and Cambridge Bay, mainly because of larger loads and unusual ice conditions.
Ice clogged the water off Kugaaruk as the temperature fell below freezing, ending the community's resupply before it was completed by the Coast Guard Ship Des Groseilliers and a helicopter. - photo courtesy of Gord Dinney |
Consequences to the community range in seriousness.
Kugaaruk has an unusual and complex method for routing of goods, with loads destined for the community gathered in Valleyfield, Que., then shipped by sealift to Nanisivik and stockpiled.
The Canadian Coast Guard then transports the goods to Kugaaruk with the CCGS Des Groseilliers, a medium icebreaker, with the CCGS Terry Fox, a heavy icebreaker, available for support, depending on the cargo.
"They were on schedule to bring our materials from Nanisivik to here," said Kugaaruk senior administrative officer Gord Dinney. "We did get the ship in a few times - because there's lots of supplies coming in, either for the Co-op, for the store, for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, the power corporation, the hamlet and individuals. So it requires a number of trips from Nanisivik."
Dinney says the Coast Guard ships made a few trips, and then they disappeared.
"We wondered what happened to them.
"But the rumour is, and it seems to be well-founded, that the Government of Canada pulled the (Des Groseilliers) off the schedule for Mr. Harper for their trips to Nunavut, including the Franklin (search)."
The ships then returned in late September, "only to be faced with ice."
A substantial amount of the goods on the sealift are now stockpiled in the south, said Dinney.
Mario Pelletier, assistant commissioner with the Canadian Coast Guard, oversees operations in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the entire Artic.
"We plan our operations for the Arctic months ahead of time. We take into consideration all stakeholder requirements, and that includes the Kugaaruk resupply requirement," Pelletier said.
Coast Guard ships - seven in total - are located strategically across the Arctic to ensure search and rescue coverage, emergency response coverage and escort icebreaking services, in addition to other government priorities and the Kugaaruk resupply, said Pelletier.
"Any good plan is always subject to change and that was a true reality this year. A major factor that made changes to the plan is obviously weather and ice conditions."
In 2014, the Arctic experienced a severe concentration of ice and Pelletier says this had an impact on icebreaking and search and rescue requests. Any ship in the vicinity of a search and rescue has to respond.
"We do expect this variability will continue year after year."
Pelletier also notes that in the past Kugaaruk has had an average of 40 sea cans, whereas this year there were 77 containers stockpiled in Nanisivik. In the previous two years the Coast Guard managed the resupply in three trips, while this year it managed five altogether before conditions halted its efforts. It even modified the Des Groseilliers so that it could carry more on each trip and began earlier than usual.
"We started in late August, which is the earliest we've ever started the resupply for Kugaaruk," he said.
The prime minister's visit delayed operations "for a couple of days." The CCGS Radisson had been intended for the job but she was called away for an escort, so a fully-loaded Des Groseilliers had to take over that special operation out of Nanisivik.
Regardless, by Sept. 23, ice had moved in due to westerly winds and the shift stayed consistent for days, by which point temperatures had fallen below freezing.
"That's why we decided as much as possible to offload with the helicopter, which is not the most efficient way. But we were able to offload all the perishable goods for the Co-op."
At that point, after discussing the matter with the Government of Nunavut (GN), the remaining goods, including a garbage truck, were dropped at Churchill, Man. The GN's Department of Community and Government Services has agreed to ship the seacan of hamlet supplies by air from Churchill.
"We needed that garbage truck," said Dinney. "As a matter of fact, right now, we're using a loader to pick up our garbage."
The GN agreed to do some repairs to the old garbage truck to get the community through the year.
"Hopefully, the new truck will come by sea lift next year. That's assuming, of course, that we don't face the same problem next year as we face this year."
Dinney is also concerned that already high food costs may increase even more.
Other commercial vessels experienced delays due to ice conditions and needing Coast Guard escorts. That's the problem Cambridge Bay experienced.
Residents of the community received an e-mail from Keven Wasylyshyn, manager of sales, marketing and customer service with the Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL), which read: "NTCL regrets to inform you that entry to Cambridge Bay for delivery of the fourth and last barge of the 2014 season is not possible. Canada Coast Guard Services is unable to provide safe passage of our vessel into the community due to the significant presence of ice."
Pelletier said the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, the most capable icebreaker in the fleet, was set to escort the NTCL barge.
"The Louis was available. She showed up ahead of the request. We did an ice reconnaissance flight. We provided the ice conditions to the captain of the tug and barge and they decided not to proceed. The Louis was able to make the track, but it was impossible even with the assistance of the Louis.
"That tug is a small boat and the amount of ice - there were 10 inches of thick ice, fast ice, plus some multi-year ice further along the coast - it was just impossible for the tug to get through it. So they decided, instead of risking damage, to winterize where they were."
NTCL's plan is to store the freight "in a safe, secured location in Roberts Bay until such a time that a safe transfer by cat train can be performed," said Wasylyshyn in his e-mail.
Jim MacEachern, manager of economic development and communications for the hamlet of Cambridge Bay, said "there's no question it's going to delay some of the projects that had been planned for this year.
"There were a lot of personal orders on this last barge," he adds.
MacEachern notes that the situation this year is unusual, because it's the first time in his five years in the community that a barge has not delivered a shipment.
Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven and Kugluktuk all report full delivery of sealift goods this year.
"Honestly, it was the biggest summer I've seen in my career," said Pelletier, adding there was also a record amount of ice on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River last winter. "Ships were busy all the time. There was no down time at all this year."
