The Mackenzie River Delta in NWT, Aug. 31, 2009. The mayor of Norman Wells, NWT, says freight has been left undelivered to the area due to low water levels.Rick Bowmer/AP
It takes Frank Pope two days to fly from the remote town of Norman Wells, NWT, to the nation’s distant capital. He made the journey to Ottawa twice this month – most recently this week – to deliver a stark message to federal officials.
“Climate changes caused water levels and the Mackenzie River – our river highway – to drop to non-navigable levels by midseason this past summer,” Mr. Pope, the town’s mayor, told the Senate committee on transport and communication on Tuesday.
“Tons of freight, including groceries and heating fuel, are left undelivered to our region due to these low water levels, causing much of our tradable merchandise to be flown in at high cost.”
The Mackenzie is among Canada’s greatest rivers. Running from Great Slave Lake through the Northwest Territories into the Arctic Ocean, it discharges more water than any other river except the St. Lawrence. Its drainage basin, spanning 1.8 million square kilometres, is the largest of them all.
Norman Wells, with a population of about 750, relies on a combination of privately and government-owned barges to bring in about three-quarters of its goods, Mr. Pope told The Globe and Mail. The town also serves as a hub for the other four communities in the Sahtu administrative region: Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Tulita and Deline.
But the river has become ever less reliable, Mr. Pope said. Compounding matters, warming temperatures have left the community’s winter road – another vital link – passable for ever-shorter periods. (Winter roads are carved from ice and snow, and often cross frozen lakes in the coldest months, providing temporary access.)
“I’m forecasting dire straits. We are going to become permanent fly-in communities. That’s the only way we’re going to get merchandise in here.”
Ryan Connon, a hydrologist with the territorial government, said most of the Mackenzie’s water comes from Great Slave Lake, the level of which has oscillated wildly in recent years. In 2019 it was far below average. Beginning in the summer of 2020, extreme rainfall caused it to rise quickly, reaching the highest levels ever recorded that September.
Spring 2022 brought more flooding along the Mackenzie. But the headwaters of the Peace and Athabasca rivers, which feed both the lake and the river, experienced extremely dry conditions, including less snowfall than usual and hot temperatures. That caused much of the melting snow to evaporate rather than reach river systems. This month, Great Slave Lake reached the lowest levels on record.
“There’s no historical precedent for what we’ve seen over the past five years on this river system,” Mr. Connon said.
The Mackenzie River was a trickle
at Norman Wells throughout 2023
Discharge, cubic metres per second
2023
Average range
Minimum-maximum
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
the globe and mail, Source: Government of Northwest Territories,
Water Survey of Canada
The Mackenzie River was a trickle
at Norman Wells throughout 2023
Discharge, cubic metres per second
2023
Average range
Minimum-maximum
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
the globe and mail, Source: Government of Northwest Territories,
Water Survey of Canada
The Mackenzie River was a trickle at Norman Wells throughout 2023
Discharge, cubic metres per second
2023
Average range
Minimum-maximum
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
the globe and mail, Source: Government of Northwest Territories, Water Survey of Canada
Marine Transportation Services, owned by the territorial government since 2016, moves cargo and fuel along the Mackenzie using eight tugboats and a fleet of barges. Tracy St. Denis, an assistant deputy minister with the territory’s infrastructure department, said wildfires forced evacuations of MTS’s shipyard and headquarters in Hay River in May and August.
Low river levels forced MTS to take fuel “over the top” – shipping it by tanker from Washington state in the U.S. around Alaska to the small Arctic hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, and then up the Mackenzie. Later, cargo normally shipped on the river was instead trucked along the Dempster Highway – a detour that added thousands of kilometres and at least $1-million in costs. MTS spread cargo and fuel shipments over more barges, thus reducing the vessels’ draft to navigate the Mackenzie, but again increasing costs.
MTS’s team “did get three out of the four trips to Norman Wells done, and two out of the three to Tulita,” she said with pride.
But at Ramparts, one of Norman Wells’ two grocery and general stores, a rude awakening is imminent. Joshua Earls, its owner and manager, said he received just two barge shipments this year, compared with nine in 2022. He’s running low on stock, and doesn’t expect relief from the winter road until early February. So he’ll have to fly in as much as 41,000 kilograms of food, resulting in freight costs three or more times higher than usual.
“It will more than double the prices of pretty much everything you could think of,” he said.
The price of a four-litre jug of orange juice, normally $18.99, will surge to $36.95. A two-litre container of Tide laundry detergent, typically $19.99, increases to $36.66. Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, usually $2.99, rises to $4.45. And some hazardous goods can’t be flown in, period.
“There’s going to be a propane shortage here in our town,” Mr. Earls said. “We’re actually already having to ration that out.”
Historically, abbreviated barging seasons on the Mackenzie led to calls for construction of all-weather roads. This time is no different: Mr. Pope told the Senate committee that a 320-kilometre gravel road to Norman Wells from Wrigley, NWT, must be completed as quickly as possible.
Plans to build such a road through the Sahtu, parallel to the Mackenzie, have been on the books for decades. After an election earlier this month, yet another territorial government must decide how great a priority it should be, and how to pay for it.
Meanwhile, attention in the Sahtu communities turns to future barging seasons. The immediate outlook is discouraging: Mr. Connon explained that throughout the river basin, ponds, lakes and wetlands remain desiccated.
“Before water can really start making its way to these larger rivers and lakes, all of these smaller areas have to be resaturated first,” he said. “If water levels are to return to normal levels, we would need much more precipitation than normal.”
Ms. St. Denis said the Mackenzie River’s importance as a transportation corridor remains undiminished. But she expects its variability will continue to force MTS to adapt, such as being ready to ship earlier in the season and pivot to going “over the top” when the Mackenzie becomes impassable.
“We have to expect the unexpected.”