Mackenzie Delta communities want extended ferry service back, citing 'considerable risk'

Last November was the first time in years the Northwest Territories' Department of Infrastructure didn't offer extended ferry operations.

Now, leaders in Fort McPherson and Inuvik, N.W.T., saythey were put at risk, and want the service back.

"We don't want to be isolated anymore, we are in this day and age where we shouldn't be,"saidElizabethVittrekwa, mayor of Fort McPherson.

• Change in ferry operations, warm weather lead to shipping delays in Mackenzie Delta

The ferries for both the Mackenzie River and Peel River ended up closing in early November, about a month earlier than before.

In past years, the ferries would operate while the ice road was being worked on and closed once it was ready for vehicles to drive allowing freight and cars about an extra month to get to Beaufort Delta communities.

It was alarming for residents when not one, but both gas stations in the hamlet, ran out of gas in December, said Vittrekwa.

• Inuvik's 'precarious' fuel situation threatened by proposed cut to winter ferry service

She says concerns were raised by residents at the time because many services provided involved equipment that ran on petroleum gas including their water trucks.

Vittrekwa says luckily, the ice crossings started to open up shortly after the incident but Vittrekwa says they fear it could have been worse.

Which is why she has written a letter to Wally Schumann, the Minister of Infrastructure on behalf of the hamlet..

In the letter she writes "weighing the cost of shoulder season ferry service against the real necessity of food and gas is an action that should result in continued ferry operations until the larger delivery vehicles can safely drive on ice."

CBChas asked the Department of Infrastructure for comment but did not get a response in time for this story.

When CBC initially reported in December on shipping delays in the Mackenzie Delta, Merle Carpenter, the regional superintendent for infrastructure for the region, said spending $1 million to keep the ferry going for the extended time was not worth the cost.

He also added that the Dempster Highway on the Yukon side wasn't open for the majorityof the time.

Natural gas supplies depleting

Inuvik's Mayor Jim McDonaldsays with the Ikhil well depleting, which supplies natural gas to the community, the community was put "at a considerable risk."

"It could water out tomorrow, or it could at best [in] a couple of years," says McDonald.

"If anything had happened on the well, we had at best a 14 day supply."

McDonald hopes to talk to territorial government officials about both the extended ferry service and the gas situation in Inuvik.

He says the need to start looking ahead of what they will do when they run out of gas.

"Work at either bringing in a different source of fuel for our heating purposes, or bringing on another gas well, which would be the long term solution."

There is hope that now the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway is opened up, there is now potentially access to untapped natural gas.

• Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway could open up new gas fields

McDonald says everything comes down to cost, and going back to using diesel gas might be less expensive.

But he thinks that is "a step backwards."

With either solution, McDonald says the extended ferry service will be needed. Both communities say they don't want to be put at risk again.

• Ferry's out: Travellers and supplies headed to Fort McPherson, N.W.T., stranded due to high water
• 'It happens': Travellers wait patiently for ferry service at Fort McPherson to resume
• Backhoe smashes ice aboard the M.V. Louis Cardinal ferry in N.W.T.
• Weather in the Beaufort Delta 'just like spring,' says woman waiting for freeze up