So the Bond left around 10 last evening, 4 hours longer than the operators wanted for unloading, but we live in the realities of the Labrador coast, not in the hypothetical world of island based servants.
From all reports things were a shambles down there, leaving aside the accident with the wood loaded trailer.
An interesting aside to that is: it was very fortunate that a fire hydrant was not flattened, if the trailer had of toppled or even the wood at the back of the trailer had collapsed, the hydrant was toast.
But at times dark clouds have a silver lining; you see the wood is destined for fixed income families or pensioners who burn wood.
To date about 70 households will receive 17 sticks of wood to help in heating their homes.
Any wood left will be sold by the Nain Inuit Community Government [NICG] at a nominal price on first come first serve basis.
Any monies made will be used to buy oil for any people meeting the afore mentioned criteria who do not use wood for heat.
Hopedale will also receive wood to be used under the same terms as above.
It seems this is a collaborative effort by Torngat Mountains MHA Patty Pottle, the provincial department of Natural Recourse's and the NICG.
The wood was loaded in Cartwright and is from clearing done for the building of the Trans Labrador Highway.
The latest pictures of the essentials being unloaded this morning. Labatt Blue is not my beverage of choice, I am sure there will be something there that meets my tastes though.
6 comments:
I have been thinking lately about the way "isolation" and "remoteness" is defined between the highly developed South and the sparsely developed North. Your areas of interest in transportation (shipping and the food mail subsidy program) are both good examples of how isolation is created and sustained by bureaucrats. The point of the food mail subsidy program and the marine shipping service is not to provide north coast residents with good, equitable services and thereby overcome the effects of their relative distance. It's to make people feel isolated. It's to provoke their feelings of remoteness and difficulty. That shipping service is a disgrace. It's hard to believe that 60 years after confederation it has only barely improved.
So far, the best long term solution I can see is via St.Anthony's aspiration for an International Transshipment terminal. If one could marshal the support, there are promising ideas building off of the TLH, Cartwright, and serving the entire coastal area. It actually makes a lot of sense to have a small dedicated freight handling fleet of various sizes working the region.
Then with the onset of winter, the larger ships could export Labrador made products south to the USA. I'd start with a pair of 1500/2000gt Geared Pallet/Reefer's, look to add a 4300GT Geared Bulker and a few sea trucks (500-750gt ships).
Then the current Ferries could then be shifted to tourism and transport for the populous. Then the Astron could be relegated to target hulk for the Canadian Navy, as it should be.
Mind you, this would also serve a few neglected parts of the island too. For example, Fogo Island seems to feel like a mushroom too. The folks on Channel Island are not even worthy of a toilet. Quite a few locations feel the neglect. Like much of the south coast.
Until this is addressed, all dreams of economic development will remain dreams. The transport capacity must come first.
I bow to your experience and research skills Pathfinder, but we have had first hand exposure to the crowd at Viking Trail Tourism Organization.
When St. Anthony was the home port for the Ranger the VTTO was running tours on her up the coast by ship and back by air to Goose Bay, or you could do the round trip which most did.
Worked very well, even the Ranger was equipped to handle tourists and they had a courier on board and local people in each port to act as guides.
When the Ranger was ‘reconfigured’ no more organized tourism. No one in Labrador was willing to pick up the slack.
VTTO proved that the tourist were there and willing to pay for the trip north, why the NG and the crown in GB tourism people have not followed up on their good work is a mystery to me.
Well my skills must not be all telling, as I'm unaware of the fact of the former St.Anthony service. And that's what we are really looking for is it not? I got an Email from the Nordic REDC Development officer today. He was quite pleased to hear of such an idea of a Labrador Coast freight ship summer basing out of St. Anthony's.
He says currently their Cold Storage facility would be a useful tool. I agree, it appears top tier. But I'm sure the coastal processors must utilize it to a certain extent. But I'm hoping to find out more about their general plan, and if it were possible to have a staging facility there. Primarily to compile stone, wood and agriculture products, probably peat as well.
I hope to contact the other REDC's and query what goods are looking for export, and conversely, what products each area needs imported. With such information, I could really get cracking on getting the regions working together. If you can do that, you can push your agenda with the province and Federale's better.
Keep in mind I'd like to export to the Southern USA, where these products can attract new and novel attention hopefully. Availing better income for all involved.
St. Anthony came into play during the last Liberal regime, under Grimes I believe. The configuration was going to be Bond out of Lewisport still, Ranger out of SA and the freight for the north out of Cartwright.
The only thing that worked in that configuration was the Ranger in SA if you liked the tourism factor, and believe me some on the coast were not too hot on that.
The freight was supposed to be trucked to Cartwright then loaded on the Astron or maybe the Trans Gulf was in play then.
Any way we kicked up a fuss, the trucking idea was overturned, but they still brought freight from the Island and GB into Cartwright for tran’s shipment to the coast. What a bloody mess that was, worse than now if you could believe it.
A word of friendly advice; the folks up here have set ideas on what there needs are re configurations for freight service. What those ideas are can become confusing at times; none the less they like to be included. Then again when included some times you don’t get any input, confusing I know.
Do you have a mailing address? I can send you a fancy shopping bag if you like.
Thanks, Brian.
I really want input from the localities. To that end, I'm looking at creating a forum, to hopefully get some local direction and foster the discussion. Hopefully with polling too. But alas, you can only lead horses to water. I fear the region is so put off, they rarely participate. I hope I'm wrong.
For simplicity's sake, I'm avoiding passenger service. There is a whole mountain of certifications and red tape to jump through that hoop. And I feel with the Bond, Northern Ranger and others, the province's service would be impossible to compete with.
I have other ideas too, but I'd like to get more input before I even study them. My main goal is to complement existing service and provide capacity for economic development.
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