Coast guard heads out to determine Mackenzie’s 2025 navigability

The Canadian Coast Guard is on the Mackenzie River this week to assess how navigable the river will be for the summer 2025 shipping season, an NWT minister says.

“Hot off the press, the Canadian Coast Guard has gone out today to assess the water levels at the mouth of the Mackenzie River,” communities and infrastructure minister Vince McKay told the legislature on Wednesday afternoon.

The coast guard places navigation buoys in the Mackenzie each summer. Last year, that work couldn’t take place as water levels were so low – and the NWT’s barge resupply season was subsequently scrapped.

McKay said the coast guard has yet to make “final decisions on whether or not the buoys can be placed in the water” for 2025.

He said Marine Transportation Services, the NWT government’s shipping wing, “continues to monitor water levels along the Mackenzie River to assess options.”

Previously, McKay had said one option if the water level is too low near Fort Providence will be to ship materials from the Highway 1 ferry crossing on the Mackenzie south of Wrigley. He reiterated that option on Wednesday.

“Should any logistical plans change, our staff are prepared to work towards another busy winter resupply season to make up any essential services that may be affected by low water levels,” McKay said.

“Regardless of the water levels, improvements to procedures and service delivery continue to be made by our hard-working staff. This work includes using vessels more efficiently and reducing downtime during the sailing season.”

GNWT finalizing highway business plan

Also in the legislature on Wednesday, Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely said the ongoing water concerns meant “there is no better time than the present for us to work together with the federal government to realize the dream that is fully completing the Mackenzie Valley Highway.”

The highway would offer an all-season resupply route for Sahtu communities, removing reliance on barges and the Mackenzie River.

Responding to questions from McNeely, minister Caroline Wawzonek said the GNWT was “reviewing an update to a final business plan so we can have that ready to go” when seeking funding commitments in Ottawa for the $1 billion-plus project. (That business plan is also expected to provide an updated cost for the highway.)

Work on an environmental assessment of the highway project also continues.

Recently, Wrigley’s Pehdzeh Ki First Nation proposed an alternative alignment for a section of the route. That proposal has received preliminary support from Enbridge, which operates the Line 21 Norman Wells pipeline through the area.

Wawzonek termed the highway a “nation-building project connecting a critical part of Canada that is right now unconnected” as she promised McNeely she would advocate in Ottawa for its construction.

“An entire segment of this country has no connections by road and, if we can’t get barges in because of climate change, no connections really whatsoever, other than by air,” the minister said.

“We can’t have that. That’s not the Canada of the future. It’s not the ‘building Canada’ that we are hearing the federal government talking about.”