‘Look outside the box.’ MLA calls for changes to barging service

The MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake is calling for changes to barging services in the territory, which have faced challenges in recent years.

“The issues with low water, problems with our transportation corridor are likely not to go away any time soon,” Denny Rodgers told the legislature on Monday.

“I think it’s time we started to look outside the box logistically.”

Resupply barges for Tulita and Norman Wells have been cancelled for this season due to record low water levels on the Mackenzie River.

Rodgers wants the Department of Infrastructure’s ongoing review of Marine Transportation Services, or MTS, to consider permanently moving some base operations to Inuvik or Tuktoyaktuk. He said that would “make absolute better sense” and help service to communities in the Beaufort Delta, as well as Fort Good Hope.

Currently, MTS operations are based in Hay River, the terminus of a rail line that carries fuel from the south to the NWT, which is then barged to communities.

At the moment, fuel is being trucked to Hay River from Enterprise as CN and the territorial government are in disagreement about who is responsible for repairing damage to the end of the rail line from wildfires in 2023.

The NWT government has decided to send some barges from Tuktoyaktuk rather than Hay River this summer in an effort to avoid extremely low water levels on the Mackenzie River.

Rodgers also called for MTS, which has been owned and operated by the NWT government since 2017, to be privatized. That lead to goading calls of “sell it” from Yellowknife MLAs Robert Hawkins and Kieron Testart.

“As a government we are good at government. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re good at managing businesses,” Rodgers said.

‘Creative solutions’

Caroline Wawzonek, the territory’s infrastructure minister, said the department’s review of MTS will not consider splitting operations. She said the review is, however, looking at different operating models, such as privatization or turning MTS into a Crown corporation.

“Maybe they’ve got those creative solutions that my colleagues across the floor are looking for,” she said, adding the review is nearly complete.

“I certainly look forward to that opportunity to discuss it with them as soon as we have those options before us.”

Wawzonek noted the territorial government took over MTS after Northern Transportation Company Limited filed for bankruptcy.

“From that point forward, I’m not sure it has ever turned a profit. So if somebody out there wants to take it off our hands, that might be very good news,” she said.

The minister said her concern is ensuring small communities have reliable resupply operations.

MTS provides barging services to communities along the Mackenzie River and coastal communities in the western Arctic, which do not have all-season road access and where transporting cargo by air is costly.

Numerous barges cancelled since 2018

Last year, the final barges destined for Tulita and Norman Wells were cancelled due to low water levels and wildfire-related evacuations in Hay River. A tugboat had to be rescued after becoming stuck near Fort Providence and barges were stranded in the channel outside Hay River leading into Great Slave Lake.

The territory has since begun dredging the Hay River harbour, which residents had requested for decades.

Previously, a resupply barge to Sachs Harbour was scrapped in 2022. The NWT government blamed poor weather, damage to a fuel hose, and a late start to the season due to climate change, delayed buoy placement by the Canadian Coast Guard and flooding in Hay River and Inuvik.

Resupply barges destined for Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay in Nunavut and Paulatuk in the NWT were cancelled in 2018 over impassable ice. The NWT government later said a bad fuel shipment also resulted in a delay.

The territorial government settled three lawsuits outside of court related to those barge cancellations.

Sahtu leaders have for decades called for development of the Mackenzie Valley Highway as a permanent solution to address resupply challenges in the region.