Seaway says Welland Canal to reopen

Setting an opening date for a section of the St. Lawrence Seaway system was challenging this year, said Andrew Bogora.

The Welland Canal part of the 3,700 km seaway system — it stretches from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the western shores of Lake Superior — opens March 24.

But the Lake Ontario-Montreal section, which allows both domestic and foreign-flagged access to Quebec and upper lakes, won’t open until April 1.

For that section, the challenge was finding a delicate balance between meeting the needs of the shipping industry and the need to continue to lower water levels on Lake Ontario.

“It’s been a tough process. There was a lot of careful study,” said Bogora, spokesperson for St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.

“We consulted with a number of stakeholders, the prominent one has been the International Joint Commission and its International Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence Board.”

The IJC deals with issues around the Great Lakes on both sides of the border. Its Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board controls the outflow of Lake Ontario.

That outflow is regulated at the 36-turbine Moses-Saunders Dam, between Cornwall, Ont., and Massena, N.Y. and was at record-setting levels for 70 days in 2019 and high levels into 2020.

“The IJC is the sole author in setting water flows, it’s outside our mandate,” Bogora said.

He said there’s pressure from farmers who have stored grain they need to get out and steel mills waiting for fresh supplies of iron ore.

The later opening date on the Lake Ontario-Montreal section reflects the balance struck between all parties.

Bogora said the Seaway’s No. 1 function is to ensure the safety of navigation, which can be affected by the amount of water released from the lake into the St. Lawrence River.

Last year, the Seaway had to put measures in place — including one-way navigation in certain locations on the river and the use of tugs at the Iroquois Locks — to deal with outflows that were just beyond safe levels for operating vessels.

Bogora said if the water levels were at a moderate level on Lake Ontario, and the weather the same — mild conditions and little ice — the Lake OntarioMontreal section could have opened as early as March 20, as it did in 2017.

In a release, the IJC said if at the end of March, Lake Ontario water levels and inflows show increased outflows are needed, it has authorized its Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Board to maximize flows until at least April 15. That applies if conditions in the St. River Lawrence will allow for increased flow.

“Under such conditions, all interested parties would be provided with advance notice of any outflow increases that might create unsafe conditions for commercial navigation,” the release said.

It said at this point the probability the board would have to resort to such action is relatively low, but will be better known closer to the end of March. The Chamber of Marine Commerce, a binational group that represents more than 130 marine industry stakeholders, said in 2019 the industry worked with stakeholders to ensure safe navigation during record outflow levels

“Going forward, we need to get together to develop a much broader, holistic resiliency plan that can address stakeholder needs and deliver actual, real results,” said marine chamber president and chief executive officer Bruce Burrows.