Navy vessels to dock in Nunavut this month

Two Canadian Navy ships will be stopping over in Nunavut for a brief visit later this month.

The HMCS Summerside and the HMCS Goose Bay will arrive in Iqaluit on July 31. It will be the first time in 14 years that Canadian Navy vessels have travelled so far north.

Each vessel will be carrying 40 or 45 reservists, part-time personnel who are required to put in a minimum of two weeks with the military and also hold full-time jobs as teachers or plumbers, said Lieutenant-Commander Denise Laviolette.

From Goose Bay, Labrador, they will travel to Iqaluit, where they will stay overnight. On Aug. 1, the Summerside will visit Kimmirut for the day. The ships will meet up again to travel to Resolution Island before heading to Newfoundland and then Halifax.

While in the North, personnel will be performing a range of low-risk training exercises, including coastal surveillance and patrol, ocean-floor mapping and bottom-object inspection.

During the stop in Iqaluit, a troop of Canadian Rangers will board the ships to participate in the training exercises and travel with the reservists to Resolution Island.

The ships will be open to the public, with details to be announced later this month.

The HMCS Goose Bay is named for the town in Labrador, a Navy information pamphlet says. “The ship’s badge shows a Canada goose flying above the water representing birds stopping in the area during migration,” it says.

The HMCS Summerside is named for Summerside, Prince Edward Island. It is the second ship to bear that name. The first was a Second World War Flower Class corvette.

Both vessels are relatively new. Goose Bay was launched in September 1997 and commissioned as a war ship in July 1998. Summerside was launched in September 1998 and commissioned by the Navy in July 1999.