Winter is coming: Canadian icebreakers on Windsor standby

Article content With winter in the Great Lakes still on standby, so too are icebreakers needed to keep the marine freighters moving for as long as possible through the cold season. “Grain is still moving, there’s still a lot of essentials being shipped,” said Windsor harbour master Peter Berry.

That includes home heating oil, road salt and coal, which remains an important heating fuel for American homes. With winter weather seemingly on the horizon for the Great Lakes, the Canadian Coast Guard has docked an icebreaker in downtown Windsor. It’s a strategic location for Southwestern Ontario, with the ship and its crew ready for the potential of freezing waterways, search and rescue missions or other emergencies.

Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Samuel Risley is docked at Dieppe Gardens, and another vessel is set to join it later this week. “It’s commonly down that way in the winter,” Coast Guard spokesperson Jeremy Hennessy said of the Risley visit. “It’s currently on ice breaking and search and rescue standby.

There’s no ice yet but if it does form over the next week or two, it’s in a good spot to be able to respond to ice breaking,” he said. “It’s right on the Detroit River. The St. Clair River a bit further north is another area that gets busy when ice forms. It’s sort of a choke point at the bottom of Lake Huron.

“So, location is the No. 1 reason why it’s there, for ice breaking purposes.” Operational requirements and potential ice formation will dictate how long the vessel remains in the Windsor area. The CCGS Griffon is also headed to Windsor later this week, moving through the Welland Canal before it closes for the season on Jan.

7. “Typically, we’d see ice now,” Berry told the Star. But aside from some shoreline ice in the Thunder Bay area of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater body in the world remains essentially ice free. “The last five years we’ve seen a dramatic change,” said Berry, adding the Great Lakes last year saw less than 30 per cent ice coverage at the coldest point in the winter.

The current ice coverage — less than one per cent — is the lowest it’s been since 2018, he said. It’s good news for shipping now, but long term, if the milder weather persists, it could spell trouble as year round surface evaporation leads to “a great reduction in water,” said Berry. Windsor is a good central location for icebreakers on standby, he said, with deeper water and easy access to fuel and supplies.

That icebreaker presence is important. A Great Lakes freighter stuck in ice can cost the shipper about $10,000 a day, said Berry. And that day can come soon enough. “All it takes is a week of sub zero temperatures and the type of wind we’re seeing now,” he said..