Poor weather leads to cancelled flights and bare shelves in Kimmirut

It's been a year and a half since Norma Budden has seen her kids. 

The Kimmirut, Nunavut, resident was scheduled to fly south on Aug. 4, via Iqaluit, but like every other flight that day, and the subsequent days, it was cancelled. 

"I understand that it can be a day or two or three sometimes but I mean there is no way I should have to wait and see them a week from then," she said. "Not when the skies have been clear at different times of most of the day."  

Regular flights between Iqaluit and Kimmirut resumed Wednesday after seven days of cancellations. Wednesday's flight is just the first of many making up for a backlog of passengers and groceries destined for the hamlet. 

Budden said the backlog is visible at both the Northern Store and the Co-op. 

"We are behind everywhere," she said. "None of the mail or food people order. None of it's here, and a lot of it is going to have to go in the garbage. Like, when we get our produce we will probably have milk that's rancid that's gotta go." 

Canadian North confirmed that cancellations started last Wednesday and continued through Tuesday of this week. Only a single flight on Saturday was able to make it through. 

John Mabberi-Mudonyi, the hamlet's senior administrative officer, said the airline needs to better inform residents of the cancellations. 

"It has led to a lot of frustration," he said, pointing out that some people who came to the hamlet to work on projects have been stuck.

"That tends to be kind of expensive. Likewise, there are people who are stuck in Iqaluit and are supposed to come here, but it is also very expensive and inconvenient for them as well." 

No 'absolute certainty'

Andrew Pope, the airline's vice president of customer and commercial, said the problem was bad weather, and more recently, turbulence, which was a problem even on days that may have seemed clear enough to fly.  

"Unfortunately," Pope said, "there is nothing that we can do to provide that absolute certainty that people will be able to travel on a certain day."

In a news release Aug. 10, the airline noted that flights to and from several Nunavut communities have been cancelled recently due to "unforeseen weather disruptions."

That includes flights in Arctic Bay, Sanirajak, Igloolik, Clyde River, Kinngait, Cambridge Bay and Pangnirtung. 

Cargo to many of those communities, like Kimmirut, includes groceries that are transported on passenger flights. 

In Kimmirut, that left store shelves empty while the planes couldn't get in. 

Pope said the airline can fly as many as four flights to Kimmirut in a day, and will run as many as possible to make up the backlog, weather permitting.