The Canadian Coast Guard has opened its 2026 Arctic summer season with nine icebreakers due to operate across northern waters from June to November, supporting community resupply, icebreaking, search and rescue cover, scientific work and federal Arctic missions, according to the Canadian Coast Guard.
The season began on 10 June, when CCGS Jean Goodwill left Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, for icebreaking, search and rescue coverage and support for Operation Pacer Goose, the annual resupply of the US Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
CCGS Des Groseilliers also departed on 10 June from Quebec City for icebreaking, aids to navigation maintenance, science support, fuel cache refuelling and joint exercises with Canadian Armed Forces partners.
CCGS Vincent Massey followed on 17 June from Quebec City for icebreaking and search and rescue coverage. The next sailings are CCGS Amundsen from Quebec City on 9 July for the 2026 Amundsen Science mission and CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier from Dutch Harbour, Alaska, on 16 July after its Operation North Pacific Guard deployment, with work planned in the Western Arctic.
CCGS Pierre Radisson is scheduled to leave Quebec City on 4 August, followed by CCGS Henry Larsen from St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on 6 August and CCGS Captain Molly Kool from St John’s on 9 September.
CCGS Louis S St-Laurent will depart Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, on 18 September to support the Joint Ocean Ice Study in the Beaufort Sea and provide icebreaking support in the High and Low Arctic. It is scheduled to remain the last Canadian Coast Guard vessel operating in the Arctic until the end of November 2026.
Before its Arctic operations, Louis S St-Laurent, Canada’s largest and most powerful icebreaker, will support work under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by helping to map Canada’s extended continental shelf in the High Arctic. The vessel is due to transit to the North Pole and fly the Canadian flag there in late July.
The Marine Communications and Traffic Services centre in Iqaluit, Nunavut, opened on 15 May to support safe navigation and vessel traffic monitoring in the Arctic. The coast guard will also train with the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, northern and Arctic international partners and the Canadian Armed Forces through Operation NANOOK.
In the Northwest Territories, CCGS Dumit and CCGS Eckaloo will carry out seasonal buoy tending on Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River, supporting commercial shipping and community resupply.
The Canadian Coast Guard is a federal maritime service responsible for icebreaking, search and rescue, marine pollution response, aids to navigation and vessel traffic services in Canadian waters.
