Hello. My name is Manasie Mark. I'm a Sealift Administrator here in Iqaluit for Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc., NSSI. I've been doing these this job for almost a year now.
It's a pleasure for NSSI to be here and have the opportunity to give our input and thoughts to the committee. I'm still new in the business, but with the help of my colleague, we have prepared this talk.
I will do a brief presentation discussing the key role of maritime transportation in the economic development of the Arctic, the efforts made by NSSI to facilitate and enhance our services to sealift users, the obstacles we are facing, and some ideas that could help in resolving or at least diminishing these barriers.
We shall start by discussing the importance of maritime transportation and its major role in the economic development of the north.
First, even though transportation does have a major role in economic development, transportation options are limited due to the isolation of the communities and the far distances. Second, maritime transport is a solution to the isolation, so it becomes necessary to the economic development of the Arctic. There is a constant increase in the need for maritime transportation for regular resupplies, and we must not forget the demands for transport from the mining industry and for special projects.
Next, we shall discuss the efforts NSSI has been putting forward in improving services and better contributing towards northern economic development.
Major investments in the acquisition of several new and bigger vessels have increased our transportation capacity. These vessels are brand new, with higher lifting capacity. Also, the acquisition of new lightering equipment, such as bigger tugboats and barges, has contributed to the high quality of our services.
Adequate training sessions on forklifts and loader operations, lifting gear, health and safety, first aid courses and customer service techniques for personnel have given us more efficiency and security in providing a better service.
Our association with the Arctic Co-op and the FCNQ, the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, which is the co-op movement in Nunavik, northern Quebec, is allowing them to progress towards a better maximization of their maritime transportation activity. This benefits all ACL and FCNQ customers.
NSSI also participates actively in different meetings, studies, and requests, such as this one, to give our opinion on how to improve the maritime transportation industry and service in the Arctic.
Now we come to the obstacles we are facing. We will mainly discuss the lack of maritime infrastructure in the northern communities. First, the lack of infrastructure brings security and efficiency questions; second, the shipping season is limited due to the climate's ice, wind, and waves. The needs in maritime transportation are constantly increasing.
There is a slight possibility that the lack of adequate maritime infrastructure and support to the industry might eventually lead the transporters to reach their limit in terms of the value of cargo transported during the season.
Lack of infrastructure contributes to raising the risk of incidents or accidents, whether major or minor. The lack of logistics for maritime transportation, lack of knowledge and understanding within the staff of the private and public sectors, and the important turnovers of personnel in the north also contribute to this factor. Logistics knowledge is the key factor here in the north, because the shipping season is very short, and pretty much all the goods must be shipped during those three to four months.
Finally, we have put together some ideas and solutions to ameloriate the sealift as transportation and have continued to work with all the stakeholders to reach a common goal in terms of the best and appropriate type of infrastructure to put in place to push forward the projects and achieve the construction of maritime infrastructure, and to provide structured courses on logistics, whether given through an already established school or through conferences or symposiums in the training season. If necessary, we will form a permanent consultation committee in order to better plan the needs and be able to participate actively in the constantly growing economic development of the north.
This is my presentation. I think these points have given you our overall view of how NNSI sees some aspects of our role in economic development.
Naqurmiik. Thank you. Merci.