Backup plan for N.W.T. barge season underway, says gov't

The N.W.T. government plans to use the N'Dulee ferry crossing near Wrigley as a base to ship goods up the Mackenzie River to Sahtu communities, if barges can't make it up the river again this summer.

"It's still up in the air," Terry Camsell, the director of Marine Transportation Services (MTS), said of the plan — which hinges on water levels.

The barge season usually runs from June to October. Each year, barges deliver supplies and fuel to communities that otherwise aren't accessible at this time of the year. In the last two years, low water levels worsened by severe drought have forced multiple barge cancellations.

Camsell said this season, he is hopeful, as water levels are about 30 centimetres higher than they were at this time last year.

He said Marine Transportation Services is monitoring and working closely with the N.W.T. Department of Environment and Climate Change's hydrologists to determine whether barging will be viable this year.

Camsell said the whole system depends on the Canadian Coast Guard, which places buoys on the river. That's critical for marine vessels to navigate safely.

"If they can't do that because [of] low water, then we can't operate," Camsell said.

Jeremy Hennessy, a spokesperson for the Canadian Coast Guard, said in an email that it is a little early to say if there will be any barge cancellations — with ice still on Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River, the coast guard has not yet begun installing buoys. 

"[The Canadian Coast Guard] will assess water levels once the ice is off the river and begin its spring buoy tending operations when it is safe to do so," Hennessy said.

If the water levels are low, Hennessy said the coast guard will "adjust its operations as necessary to reflect the conditions of the river."

In normal conditions, Camsell said, goods are usually trucked from Enterprise to Hay River, since the railway service closed down. From there, they are loaded onto MTS barges and are shipped to communities along the Mackenzie River. 

Camsell said MTS and Canadian Coast Guard ships are stationed in Hay River. When water levels are low in Great Slave Lake, getting through the rapids around Fort Providence becomes a problem. In such conditions, they are unable to operate on the entire Mackenzie River.

"So we physically can't get down the rapids to get to Fort Simpson and the N'Dulee ferry crossing," Camsell said.

He said the backup plan — trucking cargo to the N'Dulee crossing instead