The Current - Delayed ferry leaves store shelves empty in Labrador

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

The Kamutik W ferry, which delivers critical items like food and toilet paper to remote communities in Labrador, has finally set sail after being delayed for more than a week. The delay has left people in those communities running low on supplies, and some advocates calling for a better solution.

Ten years ago, I asked my partner Kelsey if she would marry me. I did that, despite the fact that every living member of my family who had ever been married had also gotten divorced. Forever is a Long Time is a five-part series in which I talk to those relatives about why they got divorced and why they got married. You can listen to it now on CBC's Personally. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is the current podcast. People on the North Shore of Labrador may be breathing a sigh of relief this morning. The Hometick W W ferry is finally making its way from Goose Bay to points north. It was supposed to set sail more than a week ago,

bringing food, toilet paper and other essentials for the first time in a long winter. This year's delay has advocates calling for a better solution. Lila Evans is the progressive conservative member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly for Torngat Mountains. She joins me now from Makovic in Labrador. Good morning. Good morning. Lila, what do you think people in northern Labrador are going to be most looking forward to when the ferry finally arrives? Well, I mean, it's out there and we're having trouble stocking essential items like toilet paper and food. So, you know, it is a serious situation.

I also want to introduce the communities that I'm talking about in northern Labrador. We're in the age of reconciliation now, and all of the six communities that's been impacted by the failure for this service, ferry services, have Nabishish, which is a Innu community. It's actually a federally recognized reserve. The other five communities is Nain, Hopedale, Mokovic, Pospa, Riglett, Mokovic. And these are all Inuit communities that have settled land claims. They're recognized federally as Inuit communities. So there's a lot of irony here to be, you know, time to have our service start on time. It's been delayed and it's impacting our

communities. And we just this past week and celebrated national Indigenous people's day. Thank you, Leela, for setting that stage for us

and the geography and the communities. But can you tell us a little bit more about the impact that ferry delays have on these communities along the north coast of Labrador? Yeah well we've been waiting all winter. We don't get ferry service and we have a small twin otter that flies into our communities and only 11 people can fit on a twin otter and a return trip from the community out to to happy valley goose bay where the trans high level highway and the major airports are cost between 7501,200 per return trip just to back and forth to your home community. So we need the ferry service.

We are shelves are bare. We need it for food, household goods, essential items, speedboats, outboard motors, ATVs, vehicles, construction equipment. We have a very short window for our building season. So contractors are held up with their construction materials, their vehicles, and that's impacting the season, but also it can create a year delay. It impacts our quality of life. I want to stress to people, it hits at the heart of our communities communities our survival. It impacts our retention, our professionals. So like if there's so many

barriers especially being able to travel the ferries for affordable travel and and for the goods in our in our communities it impacts the quality of life not only for our people but for our teachers, social workers, our program leaders, counselors, you know, everything, our youth, retaining our youth. Yeah. Dr. Nancy Cableman Lila, I just want to ask you, you know, you've seen delays before and we contacted the Department

of Transportation and Infrastructure for Newfoundland and Labrador and they told us that the ferry is a 1A class, ICE class certified and it is capable of operating in standard to heavy seas ice conditions. And it was scheduled to begin service June 15th, but quote had been tied up in goose Bay due to unsuitable ice and wind conditions. What do you make of that?

Well, she ties up a lot through the season. Sometimes she ties up for wind, for, for, for tide. Sometimes she ties up for wind, for tide. She really is more of a riverboat. She shouldn't have been put on contract. And it really impacts our quality of life. In actual fact, I will add a point, too, is that the Inuit government actually accused the province of violating its land claims when it did the RFP for this boat and award the contract. It said it had a duty to consult in changes to transportation.

They questioned the way that the deal was done and then they questioned this boat. And even now, like all court from the NNOT civil government, the Inuit land claims, anyway, they basically sent a letter out to the Minister of Transportation May 28th requesting a formal meeting to discuss and get ahead of this situation because it happens, requesting a formal meeting to discuss and get ahead of this situation because it happens, it's been happening every year since this report's been put on. But the minister has not communicated a response

back to them and I think that's really shameful. And also too is in their press release, they question whether or not it's heavy ice that's hampering the service. And that's what I've been saying. I actually was in the House of Assembly in May calling for this boat to come up to Labrador early so she could start and be on time, and in actual fact, they didn't agree to that. When she did come up and now

they delayed it and we looked at the satellite maps we looked at the images we had people flying in planes we could see that ice was not a factor here. It's a failure for them to deliver the service to us. Lila we just have less than a minute left. It's believed that the ferry is on route now. When do you expect to see it? This ferry is once a week. She comes up, she takes a week to get up to our communities and get back. So like we probably have like a backlog now of probably three to four boats. And so some people who should be getting their materials or the outboard motors they need to hunt and fish or

contractors to do vital construction, they may not receive it into late July or early August. It really impacts us. Yes. And like right now, Nunatsibut is government is actually trying to get toilet paper to distribute to its members in this community. This is really unacceptable behaviour and we struggle every year to have our voices heard because we need this essential service. Indeed, it certainly sounds like that. Well, I hope you see that very soon and get some resolution to this ongoing issue. Leila, thanks very much for speaking with us.

And thank you for your patience. Thank you. Leila Evans is the Progressive Conservative member of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly for Torn Gap Mountains. This has been The Current Podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca slash The Current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.