New barge will carry dry cargo from Vancouver

CAMBRIDGE BAY – The annual re-supply to the Kitikmeot region should go much more smoothly in 2009, Carmen Loberg, the CEO and president of Norterra, promised delegates at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association's recent annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

More timely and cheaper delivery will result from the Northern Transportation Company Ltd.'s use of a new $14.6-million, 12,000-tonne barge that will carry dry cargo north from Vancouver, Loberg said.

Norterra, owned 50-50 by the Inuit of Nunavut through Nunasi Corp. and the Inuvialuit of the western Arctic through the Inuvialuit Development Corp., bought NTCL in 1985.

The purchase of the large barge is the first step in NTCL's plan to move away from shipping fuel and dry cargo up the Mackenzie River, Loberg said.

In the past, NTCL's fleet of 12 tugs, 90 barges and two ice-class vessels left from Hay River in the Northwest Territories, traveling north along the Mackenzie nearly 1,200 kilometres to Tuktoyaktuk.

But the new 400-foot-long barge will travel up and around the coast of Alaska to the Beaufort Sea, towed by a $12 million tug, Loberg said.

Loberg told the KIA that this sea route will be a more cost-effective way to move cargo, as well as fuel, to the Kitikmeot, although shipping via the Mackenzie route will still be offered.

The new barge will be able to hold the equivalent of 1,000 20-foot sea containers, Loberg told the KIA.

The purchase of the huge barge is part of Norterra's commitment to improve re-supply to the Kitikmeot where the delivery of materials to the Kitikmeot, which has been plagued by delays during the past two sealift seasons.

In 2007, some barges even ended up stuck in the ice and wintering over in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions.

The barges were then delayed in their return to Hay River after the ice broke, leading to more delays this year, Loberg said.

The new distribution system will include rendezvous points for the large cargo barge near Tukoyaktuk and Cambridge Bay.  

"Some NTCL current marine equipment will be left in the Arctic to deal with the arrival of the large barge and the local distribution. Additional equipment will be sailing in to the region from our river system," Loberg said in a later email message.

NTCL has sent fuel to the Kitikmeot via Alaska, for the past three years, although the majority of fuel still came down the Mackenzie.

In 2007, a tanker carried some of the fuel, which was then sent out to the communities on smaller barges.

This past August, fuel supply to the Kitikmeot was delayed because tests done after the tanker had left its port showed the fuel needed additives.

By the time the fuel finally arrived to some Kitikmeot communities three weeks late, Taloyoak had only three to four days of fuel left, and Kugluktuk was down to only a couple of days.

"If we had decent government, they would have declared a state of emergency," said Bobby Lyall, KIA board member for Taloyoak.

"It's absolutely unacceptable to have delays," Loberg agreed.

To increase efficiency and save money, NTCL plans to send more fuel in increasingly larger barges and tankers up and around Alaska, although some fuel will continue to come down the Mackenzie for customers who specifically want fuel from the Imperial Oil refinery near Edmonton.