Hay River Marine Terminal (Marine Transportation Services)

Hay River, NT · Territorial · Government of the Northwest Territories - Department of Infrastructure · Hay River / Great Slave Lake / Mackenzie River watershed to Western Arctic (Beaufort Sea) coastal communities

Hay River is the head office, main terminal and shipyard of Marine Transportation Services (MTS), the government-owned commercial barge operation formed when the Government of the Northwest Territories acquired the bankrupt Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) assets in 2016-2017. From this terminal MTS loads deck cargo and bulk petroleum products onto a fleet of shallow-draft tugboats and barges (roughly eight tugs) that resupply remote communities along Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie River and the Western Arctic / Beaufort Delta coast during the June-October open-water season. Destinations include Lutselk'e, Tulita, Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope, Inuvik, Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk, Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok and Kugluktuk in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region, with additional charter service. Hay River, the northern-most railhead in Canada with a paved highway link, also hosts MTS secondary marine bases at Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk.