Northwest Territories communities along the Mackenzie River are facing massive supply chain problems as climate change steadily dries up one of the country’s mightiest waterways.
“Climate changes caused water levels and the Mackenzie River—our river highway—to drop to non-navigable levels by midseason this past summer,” Norman Wells, NWT Mayor Frank Pope told a Senate committee last week. “Tonnes 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.”
Norman Wells has a population of 750 and serves as a hub for four nearby communities—Colville Lake, Fort Good Hope, Tulita, and Deline, the Globe and Mail reports. The town relies on barges to deliver about 75% of its supplies.
“But the river has become ever less reliable,” the Globe writes, citing an interview with Pope. “Compounding matters, warming temperatures have left the community’s winter road—another vital link—passable for ever-shorter periods.”
With that combination of risks, “I’m forecasting dire straits,” Pope said. “We are going to become permanent fly-in communities. That’s the only way we’re going to get merchandise in here.”
The Mackenzie flows from Great Slave Lake, where NWT government hydrologist Ryan Connon said water levels were far below average in 2019, before reaching record highs the following September due to extreme rainfall. “Spring 2022 brought more flooding along the Mackenzie,” the Globe says. “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,” so that much of the melting snow evaporated before it reached the rivers.
“There’s no historical precedent for what we’ve seen over the past five years on this river system,” Connon said.
The Globe has details on the impacts for Mackenzie River communities.
