Iqaluit cargo facility at capacity, says Canadian North
Airline says for communities north of Iqaluit, only medical supplies will be stored and shipped from that facility for now
Canadian North announced its Iqaluit cargo facility is at capacity and for the time being can only keep essential medical supplies for communities north of Iqaluit. The measures are in place until further notice. (File photo)
Canadian North’s cargo facility in Iqaluit is at capacity, the company announced Thursday.
As a result, for remote and northern communities, the airline is only accepting essential medical supplies at the Iqaluit facility as a temporary measure. Normally, it’s used to store and ship all types of cargo to communities north of the city.
All types of cargo designated for Iqaluit itself will still be accepted at the Iqaluit facility.
Wildfires in the Northwest Territories have affected Canadian North’s facility in Iqaluit by disrupting crew scheduling, travel routes and cargo operations. The fires have also made it difficult to re-route supplies north of Iqaluit through different cargo facilities.
Canadian North said the restriction on its Iqaluit hub remains in effect until further notice.
Last few times I’ve been in the Canadian North Cargo Hanger in Iqaluit, it’s been mostly empty.
.
Then again, there are 40,000 people living in Nunavut and they consume an average of 5 pounds of food and drink each day.
.
Since most of that now comes into Nunavut by air, it means the airlines now bring close to 200,000 pounds on an average day.
.
Some goes directly to Sanikiluaq. The rest is likely now being split between Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, before being distributed to the other communities.
.
Maybe Canadian North needs to get its new hanger in Iqaluit back from Amazon. Maybe the GN needs to declaire a state of emergency to facilitate that.
There’s a boat that comes for every town
Yes, there is at least one boat each year that comes to each community.
.
The boats used to bring everything. But, these days, what proportion of food comes by boat? Not the milk, not the bread, not the fresh fruit, not the fresh vegetables.
.
When a store brings food by boat, it’s money is tied up for a whole year. When a store brings food by airplane, it’s money makes more money, 12 to 24 times each year.
.
Would you rather earn a 50% mark-up once each year, or a 10% mark-up 12 or more times in a year?
Clearly you don’t understand how shipping works. Next to trains, which y’all are also against, boats are by far the most efficient way to transport goods. Efficiency = cheapness. That’s why prices for pop go from $60 a case before Sealift to $20 a case AFTER sealift.
Prices go up, not because they came by boat but because they are coming by plane. The LEAST efficient method of transportation and the most polluting.
If this story doesn’t underline the lack of warehousing space in the north, and by extention the cost of warehousing goods, then I don’t know what will. Flying saves a ton of storage.
At present, ships offer a low cost choice for a small part of the year. But that low cost depends on high volume.
.
If Global Warming continues and Nunavut harbours become free of ice year round, then ships will indeed be the low-cost transportation method for Nunavut.
.
Imagine a freight ship arriving at every community in Nunavut every month. Imagine 20,000 people living in each of our 25 communities. Imagine each of those communities consuming 36 million pounds of food every month.
.
Canada is accepting 500,000 to 1,000,000 immigrants each year. Imagine them all moving to Nunavut.
.
We better get busy building infrastructure…
Shipping may be the lowest cost option for now.
Add on changing to low carbon emitting and higher cost fuels for supply ships. Add on diverting around all the marine protected areas Ottawa wants and is adding to our seas. Add on the costs to conforming to any other new marine rules.
Soon enough, the sealift will be a whole lot more expensive. We are already seeing this trend. Meanwhile, no limit on cruise ships that are really adding to Arctic marine traffic that needs to be managed.
You have quite an amusing outlook on life if you think that airplanes will ever be cheaper than a boat.
Even once we unlock free Fusion Power Airplanes will still be the least economical way to transport goods to the north. A warehouse will always be a LOT cheaper than a Boeing.
Rankin Inlet is serviced directly from Winnipeg, it’s goods need not go through Iqaluit.
We don’t have Canadian North Airlines here at Sanikiluaq.
This is time to consider Sanirajak for central cargo hub for Nuavut, not only would it facilitate cargo, it is also no more than 2.5 hours from every community except for Grise Fiord and Sanikiluaq.
Due to global warming, Sanirajak will be under water in the next few years. No point in investing on a hub that will not be usable, except by boat.
Most online orders have not arrived in smaller communities due to wildfire in NWT. We need another airline in Nunavut who can deliver cargo.
Hurray for Iqaluit. Baffin is too big now to be 1 region, Baffin is is size of 3 provinces. Time to wake up leaders and smell the reality.
Make North Baffin its own region it needs its own hub and not go through old school so called YFB. Will safe the region and airline carriers and the cost. This is getting too old. We are going backwards. Wake up!
Bigger than three provinces? I guess that depends which ones you’re talking about. All provinces from the British Columbia to Quebec are considerably larger; Quebec is 3x the size, Ontario 2x the size. I suppose if you count maritime provinces that might be true though.
This is why Nunavut became, Yellowkine is too far and too expensive. ITS NOW TIME TO UPDATE NUNAVUT to get another region. Yes size of 3 provinces look at the water mass that surrounds us.
There is a much easier solution here. Move Resolute, Igloolik and Hall Beach to the Kitikmeot. Move Sanikiluaq to the Kivalliq. Problems solved. Now Baffin is just 10 communities, and the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq have 8 each.
If only Canadian North wasn’t monopolizing Nunavut.
Do any of you pay attention to what is happening outside of the Baffin region?
You do realize there are a number of wildfires in the NWT and thousands of people were ordered evacuated from their homes to various locations in Alberta/Saskatchewan/Manitoba?
Not many of these evacuees walked or drove.
They had to fly out and those of us recently repatriated had to fly back to our communities while bypassing much of the NWT. I am sure our neighbors in the NWT appreciate the selfish whining going on over there.
What airline services us? Canadian North.
So quit your whining … about the lack of service over there.
Start considering how the airlines are coordinating and scheduling all of these unscheduled flights in this emergency.
And, for those of you suggesting we use ships to transport our goods to Nunavut in the middle of winter, we are all laughing at you.
What a mindnumbingly dull comment.
The Baffin Region should not be impacted this way by the Kitikmeot’s problems. Your communities should be working with Canadian North to find options that do not cut into the quality of life for Baffin residents. Your cargo should be staged in Inuvik, or directly transported from Edmonton. Talk to Canadian North. Stop causing problems for the rest of us.
Just par for the course for Mr. Murphy, unfortunately. An out-of-touch old guy who screams at the clouds in most circumstances. He would be the first one complaining about this if he was still in Iqaluit.
Our problems like the NWT are the wildfires. Your problem from the sounds of it is “who cares what happens west of Iqaluit?” 15 years in Iqaluit and that attitude hasn’t changed by many easterners unfortunately.
I’m a former Kitikmeot resident – and all Kitkmeot folks ever do is blame Baffin for everything. Maybe deal with your own problems.
Kitikmeot need to go back to there original Territory (NWT).
this so called inuit owned company is utter trash. pure trash.
They are a huge reason why its so expensive to live in Nunavut.
f Monopolies and f Canadian North- truly crippling Nunavut
Canadian North is owned by Makivik (Northern Quebec) & Inuvialuit (NWT/Yukon), there is no Nunavut ownership.
Mike never said that there was Nunavut ownership, he correctly stated that it is an Inuit owned airline.
In no way shape or form did I disagree with his statement that Canadian North is an Inuit owned airline.
I clarified and elaborated on it as people who do not know will end up assuming Nunavut Inuit own it.
There use to be two cargo facilities when it was Canadian North vs. First Air. After the merger there is only one. There was never a problem of cargo space prior to the merger.
What is the old first air cargo facilities being used for now? Maybe it can be put back into cargo service? One facility for the remote communities and one facility for Iqaluit and to transfer cargo to the west.
Don’t need to build a new building just repurpose an existing one.