Winter has finally arrived for many Canadians, but dipping temperatures are no guarantee that conditions will be cold enough in the North to support the essential ice roads and bridges that serve remote communities there.
At last report, a vital ice bridge that links West Dawson to its sister city across the Yukon River had yet to form. The Yukon government described “some improvement in ice formation” on January 5, but warned “there is still a large area of open water at the ice bridge location.”
“We’ll start to build the bridge as soon as the conditions are favourable and safe,” the authorities added.
Last year, the bridge was open to light-duty vehicles (up to 10,000 kilograms) on January 5, and to heavy duty vehicles (up to 40,000 kg) by February 5. It closed on April 20.
Opening dates for light trucks in 2021 and 2020 were on December 13, and December 14, respectively.
While the Yukon government says it isn’t giving up on the ice road, West Dawson resident Sebastien Weisser has his doubts.
“It’s slowly closing up,” Weisser told CBC News last week. “But there’s no chance in hell that it’s going to close completely.”
“I don’t see how they’re going to spend three weeks to build an ice bridge that will last maybe a month, a month-and-a-half, or two at most.”
Dawson City’s struggle with its ice bridge echoes the experience of residents elsewhere across the North this winter, with high stakes for communities like Fond du Lac and Hatchet Lake in Saskatchewan.
Both lack any road access and are fully dependent on either open water for travel by boat, or ice roads. As of mid-December, both communities were reckoning with ice thicknesses far below normal, safe levels.
Speaking with CBC News at the time, Victor Fern of Fond du Lac Denesuline First Nation said the ice needs to be at least 20 inches thick to safely support the freight trucks that supply his community and its hinterland with essential goods throughout the winter. As of mid-December, ice thickness stood at less than eight inches.
Located almost 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon, on the eastern shore of Lake Athabasca, Fond du Lac depends on two major ice roads in winter. The first is an 85-kilometre stretch running east-west along the Fond du Lac River to Stony Rapids. The second runs 90 kilometres along the shores of Lake Athabasca to Uranium City. Though both communities are very small (Uranium City had roughly 90 permanent residents at last count), they have airports that provide vital connections to the outside world.
“It’s very concerning right now,” Anne Robillard, CEO of the Hatchet Lake Development Limited Partnership, told CBC News back in December. “Normally this time of year we have –20°C and –30°C or more, and the measurements always look better, twice more than what we have now.”
Saskatchewan has since seen more normal, blistering cold temperatures. But last month, Robillard said vital shipments of heating fuel and housing materials would be in jeopardy if the ice road failed to form.
Fuel is a particular concern. The community has enough fuel to last till February 12, Robillard said. Absent an ice road, the only alternative will be to fly in supplies. Recalling that necessity during the pandemic, Robillard said a single flight carrying 10 barrels of fuel cost Hatchet Lake C$24,000. Flying in the 36,000 pounds of goods her community requires each week would cost $30,000.
There is still time for things to turn around. Citing an email statement from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways, which operates some 230 kilometres of ice roads in the province, CBC writes that “ice roads in the province usually open in the first part of February.”
