We Were Lucky - This Time

Last week a fuel tanker carrying 9.5 million litres of diesel ran aground in the Northwest Passage. We were lucky this time, there was no fuel spill. Another tanker is on its way to transfer the fuel from the tanker that ran aground, lightening the load so it can free itself.

This comes a week after a cruise ship – the Clipper Adventurer – ran aground on August 27th requiring all 120 passengers to be rescued by the Canadian Coast Guard and brought to Kugluktuk where they were chartered home by air.

With climate change making the Northwest Passage more and more accessible, and as the amount of multi-year ice is generally reduced in Arctic waters, Inuit are very concerned with increased shipping in waters where navigators and shippers may be unfamiliar with uncharted hazards.

The Arctic cannot afford another Exxon Valdez. The Arctic ecosystem is too fragile, our dependency upon it is too great, and the area is too remote for timely clean-up or recovery operations.

In November of last year I wrote the Prime Minister on the matter of Arctic shipping and proposed that the government of Canada and Inuit work jointly in monitoring Northwest Passage shipping - who better to assist in this area than the people who have lived alongside and travelled Arctic waters for millennia?

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