It has been an unusually mild winter in the NWT, and the warmer temperatures have had a significant impact on the isolated community of Nahanni Butte.
Nahanni Butte is perched at the confluence of the Nahanni and Liard rivers, in the Southwestern corner of the territory. In the summer, residents can ferry across the Liard to access the nearby Highway 7. However, boats are pulled from the water when the river begins to freeze in the fall. People in the community must then wait for the river to freeze completely, at which point an ice bridge can be constructed to renew access to the highway.
This year, the bridge was late opening.
“It’s been nothing like the last three or four years,” said Soham Srimani, manager of the Nahanni Butte Dene Band. “Generally, our ice road is open by the fourth or fifth of December. We were able to finish our ice bridge by December 15th this year.”
Nine or 10 extra days may not sound like a lot to people outside Nahanni Butte, but for a community that depends on access to Highway 7 for resupplies, it is “a really big challenge,” Srimani said.
Not only do supplies become scarce while the river is freezing, but prices become “very costly,” as everything must be carried into the community on charter planes instead of cheaper transport by trucks.
The arrival of crucial infrastructure and housing units also depends on the ice road.
“Nahanni Butte is a remote and isolated community, and for our resupplies, we really, really depend on our winter road,” Srimani said. “[Band members] really want the ice road to open as soon as possible so they can travel to Fort Nelson (B.C.) to get their emergency supplies or basic necessities.”
With no access to Fort Nelson, which is located several hours down the highway, the mood in Nahanni Butte can become quite tense, Srimani said.
The community has some basic recreation facilities, and this year attempted to keep people occupied with community dinners and gym nights, but the isolation tends to have a quick and negative effect on mental health, he noted.
“They need recreation,” according to Srimani. “That feeling of isolation is a big challenge, actually.
“People can’t go out. That’s something that really, really bothers me right now.”
While the Nahanni Butte ice road is now open, and local temperatures are beginning to dip into the -30s, Srimani is worried the late freeze “might be a bigger problem in the future.”
He said the ice road can no longer be considered “a permanent solution,” and much like people in the upriver community of Fort Simpson, he contends that an all-season bridge across the Liard will soon be imperative.
“We’ve been quite open about the need for an all-weather road or a bridge,” he said. “The North is warming up faster than the rest of the world. With the winter road being reduced or not available in the future, our main agenda is to get a bridge over the Liard River.”
“We’ve been working with GNWT for a long time, and also the federal government, we reached out to them.”
Srimani and his team have facilitated a study to determine how best to build a bridge over the Liard River, and how much it will cost. He’s hoping the study will be complete by March, and intends to present the findings to the GNWT and the federal government soon after.
“We’re trying our best,” he said. “[The bridge] remains one of our top priorities.”