NTCL opens new western Arctic sealift route from B.C.

Communities along the Beaufort Sea will have a new, cheaper option for shipping up goods from southern Canada this summer, when the Northern Transportation Company Ltd. launches a West Coast barge route from Richmond, B.C.

The 12,000-tonne ocean barge will depart from Richmond once a season, moving north along the B.C. and Alaska coasts to Arctic coastal communities in the Northwest Territories and western Nunavut.

The company says it will keep its existing sealift route up the Mackenzie River from Hay River, N.W.T., although it says the new B.C. route will be cheaper for customers.

"On the Mackenzie River, you're limited to how much you can load," NTCL spokeswoman Sunny Munroe told CBC News.

"The Mackenzie's a shallow river; there's a limit to how much you can load on each barge. And as the season progresses, the water level drops, so you can load less on each barge."

News of the new route has some in Hay River, usually dubbed as the "hub of the North," wondering how it will affect business in their town.

"NTCL's a huge part of our community. When NTCL is busy, everybody is busy," said Brad Mapes, who ships janitorial supplies from Hay River to Arctic communities via the Mackenzie River.

"So it's not a good thing to see stuff being pulled out of our small community."

Munroe said most NTCL customers will likely stick with the familiar Hay River route this year. She added it's too early to determine how popular the new B.C. route will be, and if any barges may be pulled from the Mackenzie River in the future.

"It's more efficient to load a lot of freight at once onto one barge and move it, and it's also more cheaper if you move more in one trip. So we can pass those savings on to our customers in those communities," she said.

"And because we're Inuit-owned, the customers in those communities, in a way, they're also our shareholders. So we're pretty happy to be trying to do things to improve costs for them."