Life is a frozen highway
Climate change threatens northern roads
BY Jennifer Geens
“The world is a mine and the North is a canary,” Northwest Territories Premier Joe Handley warned the UN Climate Change Conference last December in Montreal. “The land is literally melting beneath our feet.” Canada was about to experience its warmest winter on record, and the Northwest Territories felt the biggest temperature anomaly in the country, with winter 7.4 C above average.
While climate change has long been a household word, few know about what it’s doing to northern transportation systems, which, in winter include 1,400 km of roads made of ice—when it’s cold enough.
With temperatures commonly dipping to —40 C, ice is thick enough to support fully loaded tractor-trailers. Mining companies use the ice road season to stockpile heavy goods, fuel and non-perishables for the year. Distributors ship large appliances and snowmobiles, and trucking companies re-supply off-highway communities with fuel, food and housing materials.
Since flying goods in any season is expensive, the ice roads are vital to remote communities, and when they melt, the consequences are significant.
This past March, Yellowknife became one big truck stop when the Tibbitt to Contwoyto ice road—the worlds’ longest privately built ice highway—closed early. At just 50 days, it was the road’s shortest season since it went in to common use.
The winter road stretches 600 kilometres from just east of Yellowknife into the barrenlands, and is the main supply route for the territory’s four diamond mines. Of the approximately 9,000 full loads scheduled to travel the road last winter, only 6,900 trucks, many half-empty due to weight restrictions, got through.
Hundreds of tractor-trailers full of cargo sat idle in parking lots all over the city. For Robinson Enterprises Ltd. (RTL), one of the North’s largest trucking firms, the early closure cost millions. Not only did RTL have to pay accommodation for its stranded drivers, it had to cancel summer construction projects in remote areas because supplies couldn’t get through.
Of course, it’s the remote communities themselves that will lose out the most if that window continues to shrink. If an ice road doesn’t open before a community runs out of essential staples such as flour and sugar, they must be flown in at a much higher cost to the consumer. And those paying are often those least able to afford them—people in remote communities with high unemployment.
The winter road between Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik, which usually opens before Christmas, wasn’t open to traffic until January. Despite official restrictions from the Department of Transportation, some Tuk residents took the risk of driving to Inuvik on the unfinished ice road to save money on supplies. “It was a major inconvenience but something we may have to get used to until we build this all-weather road between Tuk and Inuvik,” said Mervin Gruben, Tuktoyaktuk’s deputy mayor, of the delay. “Obviously the prices are always high in the community versus driving to Inuvik and getting all your fresh produce, meats and presents.”
Environment Canada’s latest seasonal forecast predicts more above-normal temperatures this winter in the Northwest Territories.
