Foreign ships in North underline sovereignty issues for Canada

A historic voyage this week by two German cargo ships across the Northern Sea Route above Russia highlights the challenges

“The Russians have enough icebreaking capacity to escort convoys of commercial vessels through the Arctic. And with those kinds of time and fuel-savings on offer, they could make a lot of money doing so,” Byers told Canwest News Service. “It also helps their sovereignty claim over the Northern Sea Route to be providing such a service, since ships relying on Russian icebreakers are self-evidently asking permission to sail through.”

By contrast, he says, Canada’s icebreaking fleet is so limited and overtaxed that the director of the Canadian Coast Guard’s northern operations recently acknowledged the Arctic region lacks icebreaking capacity because the ships are only on loan from southern ports and must return there each winter to keep clear the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes and elsewhere.

Canwest News Service