Weather wallops winter roads

The warm March weather is leading to the early closure of ice roads in the far north, causing fuel supply issues for more than 30 remote communities.

Most communities in Ontario’s north-of-50 need to store about one million litres of diesel fuel to operate stores, schools and clinics. Traditionally these communities have until the end of the month before warm weather forces the closure of the winter roads.

"Some of those communities were not able to haul their fuel in," said NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy. "That’s first priority because without any diesel fuel they’re not able to power the communities."

The early closure of the winter road also limits the amount of building materials that can be trucked in.

Beardy said some communities have only made about 30 of the 50 trips required to fill fuel storage tanks and the alternative is to fly materials in.

"To fly stuff in as compared to ground transportation, the difference is about three times the cost," he said, adding they can’t get additional subsidies to offset plane charges and therefore have to cut into money for other programs.

The seemingly early arrival of spring is made worse by this year’s late arrival of winter weather. With a warmer than usual November, the ice didn’t become safe enough to travel on until the Christmas holiday season.

"For heavy equipment trucks to be on those winter roads, they need at least perhaps about three feet of ice, so they need cold weather for a period maybe two or three weeks before Christmas to reach that thickness of ice required for safe travel," Beardy said.

The Grand Chief attributes the warm weather to global warming.

"Never before in the thousands of years we’ve been on this continent have we seen where the snow melts in mid-March," he said. "Never."