Good sealift season except for Resolute
Companies remind communities of shipping safety
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, September 18, 2016
NUNAVUT
The light ice season means annual sealift and resupply is going smoothly for most communities - except for a delay in Resolute Bay.
The MV Anna Desgagnes arrived in Cambridge Bay on the morning of Sept. 14 loaded with goods for the annual sealift resupply. - Navalik Tologanak/NNSL photo
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The community was still waiting for its last shipment from Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. (NNSI) on Sept.15.
Waguih Rayes, general manager of Desgagnés Transarctik Inc., the shipping company delivering the cargo, said the ship was supposed to supply Resolute and then carry on to Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay. But the vessel ran into bad weather and ice conditions and decided to complete the other two deliveries before returning to Resolute.
"They should be there in a couple of days," he said on Sept. 14. "We cannot do more than just hope for now but the ship is going to go and try again."
The ice needs to be clear enough to allow tugs and barges to transfer goods from the ship to the shore.
Philip Manik in the Resolute Bay hamlet office said the shipment has goods for the Co-op store, including food.
Should the ship not be able to compete the delivery, the products will have to be flown in, a venture that is much more costly.
Manik said it was "completely white out, snowing and blowing" on Sept. 14.
NSSI is currently finishing up sealifts to communities in the rest of the Kitikmeot region.
The company has six ships in the Arctic right now, most on the second of three seasonal voyages. A few vessels will make four trips in order to service mines in Mary River, Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake, Rayes said.
A notable success in this year's sealift season was delivery to Kugaaruk.
Last year, NNSI completed a full resupply to Kugaaruk for the first time. In the past, the company would deliver cargo to Nanisivik and the Canadian Coast Guard would complete the delivery because the community is in an ice zone that is off limits to commercial vessels, Rayes said.
But in 2014 the Coast Guard failed to finish the delivery due to ice.
Last year Coast Guard resources were spread too thin to conduct the delivery and construction had begun for the naval refueling depot at Nanisivik, so NNSI made the full trip to deliver supplies to Kugaaruk, he said.
With permission from the territorial government and aided by a Coast Guard escort, the company did the same this year with the MV Camilla Desgagnés, a ship with a higher ice class. The vessel is believed to have been the first commercial vessel to transit the Northwest Passage.
"We didn't have any place to stage the cargo and the Coast Guard itself doesn't have the capacity or the tonnage to handle the volumes that since last year have increased significantly." Rayes said.
NSSI will be sending a delivery to Iglulik in October and has one more trip to make around Fox Basin.
Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping (NEAS) currently has four ships doing sealifts. The vessels MV Mitiq, MV Umiavut, MV Avataq and MV Qamutik are wrapping up the second set of deliveries and transitioning for a third trip.
Safety is a priority
NEAS president Suzanne Paquin said challenges are the same year to year, but that safety is the largest priority, and an issue that is unique in the North.
"If you were in the south at the port you wouldn't be allowed to be on the terminal when the vessels are unloading," she said. "In the North, there are a lot of people there, it's not as safe as it should be.
"The beach areas are open to everyone," she said. "We come in and there are boats, there are kids, dogs and ice. There isn't any defined working area."
In fact, the annual resupply is a community occasion and draws people to the waterfront.
"There are really only two options in bringing goods to the Arctic and that's marine or air and, while the air cargo can be much quicker, it's also much more expensive."
The ships carry housing modules and construction material, stock for businesses, heavy equipment and mining supplies. "If you can think of it we probably carry it."
Paquin says the volume of annual orders is highly effected by commercial projects and federal funding.
As for regular orders, she said that as a rule the communities get the things they need, but sometimes it takes longer, like this year in Resolute.
"It's pretty smooth sailing compared to last year."
Sealift operations, which began in June, will be ongoing until November.
