One person treated for ‘minor injuries’ in Iqaluit sealift incident, city says
Coast guard, search-and-rescue mobilized to corral 20 shipping containers that spilled into the waters near deepsea port Friday afternoon
A tugboat, left, tows a shipping container near the Sivumut cargo ship, part of the NEAS sealift company’s fleet, on Saturday morning. A sealift incident caused 20 containers to fall into the water near Iqaluit’s deepsea port on Friday, prompting tugs and coast guard vessels to corral the seacans which the Government of Nunavut warned that the containers were a hazard to boaters in the area. (Photo by Jason Sudlovenick, special to Nunatsiaq News)
One person was treated for minor injuries on Friday — and shipping containers washed up on Iqaluit’s shore Saturday — following a sealift incident that caused 20 shipping containers to spill into the water near the city’s deepsea port.
A City of Iqaluit ambulance responded to the incident Friday afternoon, but the bay is not the city’s jurisdiction so the response was handled by search-and-rescue and the Canadian Coast Guard, city spokesperson Kent Driscoll said Saturday.
The city’s emergency services department played its role along with those partners. Emergency services helped one person with minor injuries, Driscoll said.
On Saturday, a coast guard vessel and tugboats were working in Frobisher Bay to corral blue shipping containers that were floating in the water or that had washed up on shore.
On Friday at 6:40 p.m., the Government of Nunavut issued an “urgent warning” in Iqaluit after 20 seacans and other freight fell into the water near the deepsea port.
Boaters were urged to use “extreme caution” while navigating the area.
Canadian Coast Guard and the NEAS shipping company were “making efforts to locate the freight,” a GN Facebook message said Friday night.
A blue cargo ship, the Sivumut — part of the NEAS fleet — was anchored in the bay on Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear if it was that ship’s cargo that had spilled into the bay.
Nunatsiaq News has not been able to reach NEAS to comment on the incident.
On Friday when the Government of Nunavut warned boaters the containers were a potential navigational hazard, the seacans appeared to be floating toward Apex, the GN’s message said.
A tugboat, left, tows a shipping container near the Sivumut cargo ship, part of the NEAS sealift company's fleet, on Saturday morning. A sealift incident caused 20 containers to fall into the water near Iqaluit's deepsea port on Friday, prompting tugs and coast guard vessels to corral the seacans which the Government of Nunavut warned that the containers were a hazard to boaters in the area. (Photo by Jason Sudlovenick, special to Nunatsiaq News)
The shipping companies should be using the port instead of unloading on barges. I sure hope neas gets a huge fine
It is not NEAS’s fault, our GN did not, even tho all the yrs in the planning and building to port, up to this summer there was no company to run the port, the GN should be fined for this for lack of planning for the port.
My 2 cent
For some reason they don’t use the port during full moon tides, extra low tides during this time,
To the previous poster, why would they need a port authority to run it ? You come in the boat tie up in load the freight. As for low tides the ship could easily unload on high tides, power up and move off till the next tide. I’m pretty sure this would work because they be able to unload faster due to not having to travel back and forth with the barges.
What a colossal waste of my tax dollars for the offloading to continue like there is no facility. Please do not waste any more tax dollars to build for the sake of building.
It’s the GN system, the over priced contracts they do, the GN doesn’t do enough to build local capacity such as trades schools or heavy equipment. Which puts them in this situation where they have to constantly put contracts out that cost ten times as much for something that is inefficient or subpar.
Housing is another example.
Poor management, projects being late and high cost overruns, poor planning, poor designs.
The GN system in place today.
Who is in charge? Wasn’t a Port Authority thought of beforehand?
Everyone commenting is correct. What a waste of millions of dollars building a port just so unionized workers can make more money. When you unload at a port it’s fairly quick. The union doesn’t like this. Their workers don’t make as much so they end up using a barge and drag things out for days, risk the polluting the bay, risk local boaters safety etc. It reminds me of the people who fought against having Federal road paved. NEAS makes enough. Unload at the Port. Period. Or give the millions back to taxpayers who funded the port.
A City of Iqaluit ambulance responded to the incident Friday afternoon, but the bay is not the city’s jurisdiction so the response was handled by search-and-rescue and the Canadian Coast Guard, city spokesperson Kent Driscoll said Saturday.
The company that did the design work for the build. Are the ones who didn’t factor in the tides. And how the depth of water during the full moons. Impacted the ability for ships to unload.
But the GN was responsible to make sure that designs were done properly. And leaving out having a port authority in place. Is on the GN.
To fix the mistakes just do it all over. But correctly this time. Cash is no problem. Look at how much was wasted the first time.