Breaking Montreal’s icy economy

The St-Lawrence seaway is finally open for business – 10 days later than scheduled.

The ice-covered maritime route has grounded cargo vessels waiting to ship merchandise between St-Lambert and the Great Lakes.

Five Canadian Coast Guard ice breakers and a hovercraft were dispatched to break ice that is three to five feet thick. Normally only two are needed at this time of year.

In St-Lambert, two ice breaking tugboats are working overtime to prevent ice jams in the locks.

“It’s been very difficult. Ice is at least three feet thick in the canal between here and Lake Ontario,” Jack Meloche of the St-Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. told Global News.

Opening the seaway as early as possible is of vital national economic interest.

Meloche hopes more than 40 million tons of merchandise will pass through the seaway this year – an amount they haven’t seen since the financial crisis of 2008.

“Steel mills want their steel. Wheat companies want to get out their wheat so they’ve been waiting. We had a hard closing in December so it’s just continuing from closing,” Meloche said.

Meloche hopes to make up for lost business this spring and summer.

But first, ice breakers have to do their job and Mother Nature has to bring some heat to help carve the way to more prosperous economic future.