GN awards sealift contracts to NEAS, NSSI

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

The Government of Nunavut has awarded dry cargo sealift contracts for the Kivalliq and Baffin regions to two Inuit-owned companies.

Peter Kattuk, the minister of public works and services, made the announcement in the legislative assembly on Monday.

Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. (NSSI), a partnership between Transport Désgagnés and Arctic Co-operatives Ltd., will serve the seven Kivalliq region communities, plus Iqaluit, Sanikiluaq, Igloolik and Hall Beach.

Nunavut Eastern Arctic Shipping (NEAS) will serve the remaining 10 Baffin communities, plus Kugaaruk.

Nunavut Ocean Transport was the only other company to submit a bid for the contract.

The new contracts mean a significant change in how some communities will receive their dry cargo, Kattuk said in his speech to MLAs. All cargo will be shipped from Montreal.

Under the previous contract, cargo shipped to Kivalliq communities by Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL) departed from Churchill, Man.

Last Friday, Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean pressed the minister to release the information so Kivalliq residents could prepare their orders.

“I do a sealift every year and I do not know how I am going to order stuff out of Montreal because I don’t know any suppliers,” he said.

“The business community over there, private people are going to be in a real predicament if they do not find out how they are going to get their goods from the South.”

But the department of public works said in a news release this week that Kivalliq consumers can continue to order dry goods from suppliers in Winnipeg. The news release said, it may even be cheaper to ship cargo from Winnipeg to Montreal than from Winnipeg to Churchill.

The department said it will also be cheaper to ship cargo from Montreal to the Kivalliq region than it would be to ship the same cargo from Churchill.

In all, the GN is expecting to save 31 per cent in the cost of shipping dry cargo to the Kivalliq region.

Shipping rates will increase slightly in the Baffin region, the release said, as increases in insurance and fuel prices are passed along.

Last month, NTCL announced its decision to close its Churchill terminal and end its barge service to the Kivalliq region. The company made the decision after it lost the contracts to ship and supply fuel to communities in the Baffin and Kivalliq regions.

However, NTCL is maintaining an office in Iqaluit and Chris Coté, the company’s marketing manager in Nunavut, told Nunatsiaq News in February that it may bid on the contract for marshalling and packaging of sealift orders.