Transportation problems behind delays in getting school portables to Colville Lake, N.W.T., gov't says

Transportation and logistical issues are behind the delay in getting much-needed portable school classrooms to Colville Lake, N.W.T., according to the territorial government. 

And now, those portables are not expected to arrive until sometime next year. 

The units have been built and ready for a while now, and are sitting in Edmonton. And so far, neither the Government of the Northwest Territories nor the contractor has figured out how to get them to the community, which only has road access in the winter.

The portables are meant as an interim solution while the community works with the territory to build a new school, something that's been planned for years to replace the current aging facility.

In August 2022, Edmonton-based Cube Construction Ltd. was awarded the contract to build two portable classrooms and a portable bathroom for Colville Lake. The contract also required Cube to deliver those units to the community. That was originally scheduled for February 2024.

Sameeksha Dandriyal, a spokesperson for the territorial government, said in an email to CBC News that the contractor didn't finish the portables in time for the 2024 winter road season, due to "issues of non-compliance and outstanding deficiencies."

This year, Dandriyal says, Cube Construction backed out in February during the final stages of planning the delivery via winter road. Another government spokesperson, Briony Grabke, told CBC News in an email that a shipping company hired by Cube couldn't deliver during the winter road season "because of capacity."

Grabke says the portable units are large, requiring special equipment and expertise to safely transport them to Colville Lake.

Grabke says Cube tried to find other heavy haulers this year but none were able to arrange the necessary logistics and permits in time.

The Mackenzie Valley winter road begins at Wrigley, N.W.T., and connects to Colville Lake, about 651 kilometres away.

According to Cube Construction, there's another complication: the portables may be too wide to ship on the winter road. 

Company CEO Ashraf Al-Turaihi told CBC News in an email that the territorial government requested a specific width for the portables.

"This size, with combination of how much they weigh, makes it very challenging to move due to the ice road capacity," Al-Turaihi wrote.

The territory, however, insists that it took the weight, height, and width of the modular units into account during the planning stages, and that the units "fall within the maximum allowable dimensions for transport to Colville Lake on the Mackenzie Valley winter road."

The territory says the contractor is still responsible for delivery, and they're now working on a solution with them. However, the government now says the units likely won't make it to Colville Lake until the 2026 winter road season.

Need a proper environment to teach kids

In the meantime, residents in Colville Lake say they're frustrated and disappointed as students continue to deal with overcrowded classrooms.

"They keep saying next year, next year and it's still, it's still not here," said Isabel Orlias, chair of the Colville Lake District Education Authority. She says she is not that optimistic about the portables arriving next year, either.

Orlias says the delivery has already been postponed twice, and getting regular updates from the territory has been difficult.

"We asked for a couple updates throughout the winter and we haven't gotten one — just the update to tell us that it wasn't going to make it in on the winter road, just a week or two before the road was closing," Orlias said.

"We desperately need a bigger space and just a proper environment to teach the kids in."