NTCL foul-ups bedevil Kivalliq barge customers

Some sealift customers in the Kivalliq will receive their shipments as much as a month late because a barge owned by Northern Transportation Company Ltd. failed a Transport Canada inspection.

“It definitely pushes our season back and it doesn’t do anybody any favours with regard to really important community construction projects,” said Martin Landry, NTCL’s manager of business development.

“So that’s why we’re trying to charter extra equipment and get things as sped up as possible.”

Landry said a Transport Canada inspection of the MV Keewatin in St. John’s revealed “operational problems” with the tug.

Ron Roach, manager of Rankin Inlet’s Kativik Ltd., said the delay means barren shelves at his store as he awaits delivery of everything from groceries to diapers.

“It’s hurt my business big time,” Roach said.

“The barge was supposed to be here on July the 19th and lo and behold I get back from vacation three weeks later and our shelves are empty and it’s all due to NTCL not living up to their schedule.”

Darren Flynn, an assistant deputy minister at the Department of Community and Government Services, said his department has material for several projects on the delayed sealift.

Some projects, like the new men’s prison in Rankin Inlet, won’t see delays.

But Flynn said construction of a new garage in Arviat is “fully a month behind,” as are improvements to the hamlet’s airport and Chesterfield Inlet’s sewage lagoon.

NTCL has chartered a second tug, the Hudson Bay Explorer, to sail from the East Coast, but that vessel was delayed, so the company has had to send one of its own tugs, the MV Pat Lyall, to the region to help out.

Landry said Braden Bury Expediting, a fellow NorTerra company, is preloading barges at the Port of Churchill to be ready to sail when the tugs arrive.

“Community construction projects” and dry cargo will get priority on those barges, he added.

The first sailing is now set to arrive in Rankin Inlet Aug. 24, with following stops in Arviat, Whale Cove, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake and Coral Harbour.

Roach said he’s had to resort to flying in stock, and is mulling his options for next year’s sealift.

He said this is the third year in a row he’s had problems with NTCL.

In 2007, late-season ice in the Chesterfield River forced two cargo-laden tugs headed for Baker Lake to turn back and spend a winter frozen in the ice near Rankin Inlet.

Roach also said NTCL should have been more forthcoming with customers about the delays.

“I had to contact them. They didn’t contact the customers or let anybody else know what the delays were,” Roach said.

Landry said NTCL has been faxing hamlets to keep them up to date and has a toll-free number — 1-866-935-6825 — customers can call for information.

“We know it’s not a good situation but we’re doing whatever we can to proactively speed this up,” he said.

Landry said an updated sailing schedule is available at the company’s website at www.ntcl.com/kivalliq.