coast guard

Canadian and U.S. coast guards are breaking the ice as the Port of Thunder Bay finishes opening operations.

The port is scheduled to welcome its first commercial ships with an opening ceremony on Wednesday.

The U.S. is sending in the Spar from Duluth, Minnesota to cut ice in smaller areas that Canada’s 6,872-ton Vincent Massey couldn’t reach over the weekend — a much more collaborative effort than the last time Canadians and Americans met on ice.

“The Vincent Massey is a large icebreaker and there were some areas that were too shallow for her,” said Port of Thunder Bay Director of Operations and harbour master Edi Lopez. “The Spar will be able to go in those areas and break the ice.”

Completed in 2001, the USCGC Spar is a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing icebreaker operated by the United States Coast Guard. She operates with a crew of around 50 Coast Guard members.

“The Spar is a smaller boat and slightly older, but that doesn’t mean it’s not capable of breaking the ice,” Lopez said. “But the Vincent Massey is a newer vessel with more power capable of breaking thicker ice. This year we had between 18 and 24 inches of ice. So for that you need a lot of power.”

The CCGS Vincent Massey is an anchor-handling supply vessel converted to an icebreaking ship in September 2023. Named after the 18th governor general of Canada, she is 274 feet long and operates with a crew of 25 Coast Guard members.

“It doesn’t take her any effort to break through the ice,” Lopez said. “It’s like slicing through butter.”

The Vincent Massey is headed south to Sault Ste. Marie at the moment, but Lopez expects her to return later in the week.

“The forecast says there will be winds from the northwest that will flush out the ice from the harbour and having the Massey here will be great to get that handled,” he said.

“If we didn’t have the support of the two Coast Guards, it would be impossible for us to see all this commercial marine vessel traffic coming to our port. There aren’t any ships in Thunder Bay capable of breaking that ice. It’s a good thing that this is opening the moving wheel that is our marine industry.”