Northern Transportation wins 1994 N.W.T. business award

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Northern Transportation Company Limited won 1994's Northwest Territories Business of the Year Award given by the N.W.T. Chamber of Commerce for the company's outstanding contribution to the communities and economy of the N.W.T. over the last 60 years.

Northern Transportation Company Limited provides a lifeline through marine resupply from Hudson Bay to the Bering Strait. Operating 17 tugs and 134 barges, the company services 50 communities in the N.W.T., Yukon and Alaska. During 1994, NTCL relocated its head office to Hay River, N.W.T. and opened new offices in Rankin Inlet on Hudson Bay and Iqaluit on Baffin Island.

The company, owned 100 per cent by Aboriginals, also plans to open regional offices in Cambridge Bay and Inuvik and purchase two ocean-going, ice class vessels this season.

"This award is particularly gratifying because of the high caliber of the other contenders," said David Connelly, a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of NTCL. "NTCL is responsive to the changing times."

"Although government cutbacks hurt traditional businesses, they can provide new business opportunites. NTCL has responded with export, trans-shipment, environmental reclamation, cost-cutting and quality initiatives."

Since being purchased by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation of the Western Arctic and the Nunasi Corporation of Nunavut 10 years ago, NTCL has contributed more than $100 million in taxes, purchases and payroll into the economy of the N.W.T., said Randy Mulder, President of the N.W.T. Chamber of Commerce.

In 1993 the company successfully launched an export business, displacing the traditional, Washingston-state-based supplier of petroleum products to the north coast of Alaska. purchasing oil in the N.W.T. and selling it to Alaska coastal communities, the company has generated $14 million in exports from the N.W.T. during the past two years.

NTCL is a major private sector employer in the territories, employing 320 persons and is the largest private sector employer of Aboriginal people in the N.W.T. The majority of the Board of the Directors is Aboriginal and all but one are Northern residents.

The company's 1994 revenues are $32 million with assets of $36 million. Although shipping revenues have declined from $38 million since the reduction of oil and gas exploration in the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort regions in the 1980's and the closing of the Dew Line resupply,, NTCL as been able to remain economically viable despite reductions in revenues.