Navy embarks on eastern Arctic tour

JOHN THOMPSON

Fog shrouds the HMCS Glace Bay, a Canadian minesweeper bound for the Nunavik village of Quaqtaq last Friday, when cries in the background interrupt a telephone interview with Lt.-Cmdr. Scott Healey.

“Man overboard! Man overboard! Man overboard!”

“Just a second,” he says, pausing to bark orders at officers to move it. His 30-odd crew are in the midst of a snap rescue exercise, where divers must rescue a dummy thrown into the water.

“We try to get one in whenever we can.”

The Glace Bay left St. John’s, Newfoundland with the HMCS Shawinigan on Saturday, Aug. 6, abandoning sunny skies and 23 C temperatures as they embarked on a five-week tour of the eastern Arctic.

The tour is intended to raise the profile of the navy in some remote locations they haven’t visited in recent memory. Their stop at Kuujjuaq on Thursday, Aug. 11, lasted only a few hours, just long enough for municipal officials to climb aboard for a quick visit before the boats continued on their mission.

Their itinerary shows plans to continue skirting the coast of Nunavik, visiting the villages of Quaqtaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Ivujiviq and Puvirnituq.

They’ll then cut across the open waters of Hudson Bay toward Churchill, Manitoba, where they will remain from Aug. 17-21. Afterwards, they’re scheduled to visit the Kivalliq communities of Arviat, Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet and Coral Harbour. The tour ends on Aug. 29 after visiting Cape Dorset and Kimmirut.

Because none of these communities have deep-water ports, the vessels will remain a safe distance from the beach as smaller boats are sent ashore.

The largest rescue operation will be staged off Cape Dorset, involving the Canadian Rangers, coast guard and air force as well. An Aurora surveillance plane, a maritime patrol aircraft from Greenwood, N.S. and a Twin Otter from Yellowknife will assist during the patrol. To maintain an element of surprise, some details of the scenario haven’t been announced.

Healey acknowledged the navy’s role in real-life rescue operations would be limited to cases where ships are already in an area. If a large airliner crashed into Arctic waters, the role of the navy would likely be limited to dredging up the remains.

“If you have, God forbid, a big crash in January, nobody’s going to get up there. No navy in the world could.”

Healey’s familiar with using sophisticated sonar equipment during a search operation – he helped with the frantic search for survivors after a Swiss Air plane crashed into the ocean off Peggy’s Cove, N.S., in September 1998.

The pair of Kingston-class vessels reach just over 55 metres in length, making them much smaller than the 134-metre frigate that ploughed toward Pangnirtung last year during Exercise Narwhal. Each boat carries a crew of 30, compared to the HMCS Montreal’s crew of 225.

The smaller vessels have the advantage of being more fuel efficient and maneuverable, Healey said. “You can get into a lot of places the huge ships can’t get into.”

Eleven Canadian Rangers are also aboard the two vessels, giving them a chance to visit communities and share their knowledge with southern naval officers. “We get to learn from those living in these places,” he said.

Healey did not comment on whether he’d like to visit Hans Island, the disputed territory claimed by both Canada and Denmark, but the tiny island is many miles to the north of where they’ll be.