The NWT government is abandoning another summer barge shipment with Mackenzie River water already at a record low and, if anything, expected to recede further.
On Friday, the territory provided advance notice to community leaders that Fort Good Hope’s barge shipment will be canceled.
The move is expected to trigger an airlift of extra gasoline. The territory says it will seek “targeted support from the federal government.”
Summer barge resupply shipments are vital to communities along the river, relied upon for everything from months of fuel to construction supplies for major projects. Airlines have been trying to pick up this summer’s slack, but they can’t carry everything and are ordinarily more costly.
While the GNWT’s Marine Transportation Services had already given up on other Sahtu barges because of low water, it had hoped to reach Fort Good Hope by heading south – up the Mackenzie from Tuktoyaktuk – rather than north from Hay River.
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