Icebreaker journey along St. Lawrence River sparks hopes for winter cruise industry

MONTREAL — An icebreaker cruise ship set sail on Friday for a frosty journey that will bring passengers along the St. Lawrence River, a new route that tourism officials hope will usher in a new era of winter cruises in the province.

Ponant, the French company that owns the vessel, says it will be the first international passenger cruise ship to venture onto the St. Lawrence River during the winter. With a capacity of up to 245 passengers and 215 crew members, the Commandant Charcot has previously sailed to Antarctica, but this winter it's embarking on its first trip through the Quebec waterway.

"Now the dream is coming true," said René Trépanier, executive director of Cruise the Saint Lawrence, an association that aims to grow the province's cruise industry.

About 150 people, mainly from francophone countries in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, set sail on Friday from St-Pierre-Miquelon, the French territory off the coast of Newfoundland. The first stop is Cap-aux-Meules, in Quebec's Iles-de-la-Madeleine archipelago, on Sunday.

Marketed as a chance to experience Canadian winter, the trip includes snowshoeing in Forillon National Park, on the Gaspé Peninsula; ice fishing and snowmobiling in La Baie, in the Saguenay region; as well as ice skating in Old Quebec City. Trépanier said tourists will also encounter traditional Mi’kmaq and Innu culture as part of the excursions.

Le Commandant Charcot will embark on four other cruises through March, with the last of the season taking a different route, making several stops in Greenland before docking in Iceland.

"We're really creating a winter cruise season in the St. Lawrence," Trépanier said in an interview Thursday, adding that the association is in talks to bring other cruise operators to the region, including Montreal.

A developed winter cruise industry, Trépanier added, would boost the economies at each of the places where the ships dock, especially benefiting businesses that provide activities from dogsledding to snowshoeing. Such activities, he said, have involved "a little army of different suppliers in each of the ports."

Ponant, which did not respond to a request for comment, describes Le Commandant Charcot as the "only luxury icebreaker powered by liquefied natural gas."

In an effort to reduce its environmental footprint the ship will sail using battery power in areas that are more environmentally sensitive, Trépanier said. Most of the ice in the St. Lawrence River, he added, has already been cleared by commercial shipping vessels.

However, environmental groups have long decried pollution and greenhouse gas emissions caused by the cruise ship industry. A 2022 report by Transport & Environment, a group that advocates for clean transport and energy in Europe, found that cruise liners produce more carbon dioxide annually on average than any other kind of ship because of the air conditioning, heated pools and other hotel amenities on board.

Anthony Côté-Leduc, spokesperson for environmental advocacy group Équiterre, said Friday that while he welcomes companies committing themselves to adopting greener practices, the technological gains in reducing environmental impacts would be cancelled out if the cruise industry expands.

“I think it's pretty fascinating to see the industry telling us that they want us to experience the Canadian and Quebec winter … when their industry is probably one of the (most) damaging industries at the climate level, which is already endangering our winters,” he said.

Le Commandant Charcot is scheduled to dock on the Gaspé Peninsula on Tuesday, then sail north to Sept-Îles in the province’s Côte-Nord region before making its way southwest to La Baie in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region on Thursday. At the end of the month the ship will reach Quebec City, its final destination.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 18, 2025.

— With files from The Associated Press

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press