Annual Sealift and Cleanup

MV Qamutik - August 26, 2014.

The day after Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Arctic Bay, the first sealift vessel arrived to unload cargo the community had ordered for the next year.  The MV Qamutik, a multi-purpose container vessel, owned and operated by NEAS, anchored in the bay on the morning of August 26th.   I noticed several stacked cargo containers and vehicles on the main deck as I was walking to school that morning.  Due to the lack of a deep sea port, the cargo containers & vehicles needed to be lowered onto two barges which are then towed to shore.  Front end loaders would then remove the containers and deliver them to awaiting customers.  Containers that aren't kept are placed back onto the barges and returned to the ship. 

            

For the entire day, the two barges, pulled by small tugboats, slowly travelled back and forth between the shoreline and the ship.  Just like last year, several of my students were absent from school because they were helping with the unloading of supplies for the Northern Store.  They would be paid for their work.  Surprisingly, the MV Qamutik left at the end of the day.  Last year, the first sealift ship, the MV Umiavut, stayed for two or three days.  I guess there weren't that many orders via NEAS this year.

           

MV Anna Desgagnes - August 27, 2014.

Inuujaq School's sealift order.

On August 27th, the MV Anna Desgagnés, a larger multi-purpose ship operated by Transport Desgagnés Inc., anchored closer to the shoreline and unloaded all the cargo containers allocated for Arctic Bay.  The vessel also used two barges and tugboats to get everything ashore.  Inuujaq School's sealift order was on this ship and was delivered to the school in two large containers.  It would take a couple of days to get everything inside, unpacked, and stocked.  Anything school related you can think of was ordered, such as, desks, chairs, paper, office stationary, cleaning supplies, and food for the breakfast program.  Hundreds of boxes were stocked against the walls of the main hallway.  The Desgagnés departed for its next "port of call" on the 28th.

           

MV Anna Desgagnes - August 28, 2014

At the present time, Nunavut is the only territory that is not connected to the rest of Canada by road, railway, water, gas, and electricity.  The only ways in or out are by air, sea, foot, skidoo, ATV, or for the enthusiasts and traditionalists, dog team.  It is a very large isolated region.  The northern communities are (and need to be) self-sufficient colonies.  Everything you need to sustain a community has to be brought in from down south.  Aircraft provide an all year round supply line but ships come only once a year during the brief summer months when there's no ice.  It is cheaper to ship something up north via boat, but since you only get one delivery a year, you need to plan ahead and get everything you need for a whole year.  For some northern residents, it's like shopping at Costco but with many shopping carts or a U-Haul truck.

            

Supplies being unloaded.

Arranging a sealift order, I hear, is a complicated task because there are many middlemen (and women) involved in the process.  There are companies that you can pay to go out and buy the items that you need and get them to the sealift ships in Montreal.  But then you have to pay the people who package everything into the sea containers, and then you have to pay the shipping company who runs the vessel to deliver it to your community.  And let's not forget the added expense of paying a local who can operate a loader to deliver the sea container right to your doorstep, and remove it if you're not keeping it.  To save money, many people do their sealift orders cooperatively.

            

I have been tempted to do a sealift order since coming to Arctic Bay, except I don't have the space in my apartment for everything I would order.  I would have to keep the sea container which alone costs between $3K - $4K.                   

            

After spending a year and a half in Arctic Bay, I finally had the opportunity to visit the old Nanisivik mine, town, dock, and airport during the Labour Day Weekend.  I was given a tour of these locations by Frank May, the former mayor of Arctic Bay.  The tour was very informative and I snapped a lot of pictures.  (More to come in a future post). 

            

By the end of August, my Grade 10 Social Studies students were deep into the study of the creation of Nunavut.  The module begins by looking at the Inuit nomadic way of life before the arrival of the qallunaaq (non-Inuit), then moves on to the transitional period (coming off the land), and finally the modern era (land claims, moving forward).  Coming up shortly will be the four Inuit land claims agreement negotiated between the federal government and various Inuit groups across the territories.

            

My Grade 11 Social Studies students are having fun studying the British Industrial Revolution and European Imperialism in Africa and Asia.  They can't wait until we get to the First World War Unit.

            

Arctic Bay - September 1, 2014.

In Grade 12 Social Studies, the students learned the intricacies of democracy and dictatorship.  After much study and debate, everyone agreed that living in a democracy is much better than living under a dictatorship . . . unless you're the dictator.  A type of dictatorship that students had difficulty visualizing was totalitarianism.  They are so used to being independent that they can't picture what it's like to live in a world where every part of your life is controlled by another.  I addressed this challenge by showing them the action sci-fi movie, Equilibrium, which paints a vivid portrait of a totalitarian society where human emotion is actively suppressed.  I may show them other similar movies like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451.

            

I began the semester with six drummers but was able to get two more to join the class by the end of the month.  They are now actively practicing rudiments, rhythms, and playing as a team.  They are already excited for their first public performance on Halloween and have started learning the repertoire.    

            

On September 1st, the cadets of 3045 Army Corps headed out to the shoreline behind the airport to clean up all the garbage that had washed up on shore.  It was the same area the cadets cleaned last year but there were parts of the shoreline that still needed attention.  The Canadian cadet program requires cadets to complete a certain amount of community service hours every year.  This requirement fits into their citizenship training.

            

The participating staff and cadets drove out to the area in pickup trucks.  Two of those trucks belonged to the RCMP.  The town's two officers decided to give the cadets a lift to the cleanup area.  Unfortunately, they couldn't stay to assist us or protect us against aggressive wildlife.  However, the chances of meeting anything aggressive was next to nil.  Everything we needed for the cleanup, from garbage bags to lunch meals, was brought out on two trailers pulled by two ATVs.  The cadets set up a white Fort McPherson tent to be used as a shelter and eating area. 

            

It was a sunny clear blue day as everyone walked around the shoreline, picking up various articles of junk off the ground.  I was still amazed by what we found: pop cans, shoes, items of clothing, tires, plastic bags, gas cans, toys, and pieces of wood.  In between the cleanup, the cadets caught some lemmings scurrying around.  The "good" pieces of wood were collected and placed in a large pile while the others were loaded onto the trailers.  We would use the good pieces for the upcoming bonfire in October.  Smaller items were dropped into garbage bags and also placed on the trailers.  Our two civilian volunteers then drove to the town's landfill and dump everything. 

            

For lunch, we had American Meals-Ready-To-Eat (MREs), prepared using Coleman Stoves.  Since the weather was so nice, no one ate their meals in the tent.  After lunch, we continued picking garbage for two more hours before calling it a day.  The tent was taken down and everything was brought back to the awaiting pickup trucks at the airport. 

            

Another little piece of Arctic Bay was garbage free.