'It's affecting everyone': fuel prices jump 22% in Tuktoyaktuk

The mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. says the high cost of fuel in the hamlet is going to force some people in the community to face some tough decisions do I pay toheat my home, or feed my family?

Usually fuel for the community comes in by barge from Hay River, but the barge company cancelled some of those shipments this year because of low water levels on the Mackenzie River near Fort Good Hope.

Fuel had to be trucked to Inuvikthen barged in to Tuktoyaktuk. And then the price went up.

Now, MayorDarrelNasogaluak is calling on the territorialgovernment to helpwith the rising cost, before it starts having a serious effect on people in the community.

"I was told by a councillor on a fixed income that this winter there's going to come a time when he's either going to have to buy home heating fuel or groceries."

Nasogaluakhaswritten a letter to the minister of public works and services, Tom Beaulieu, asking him to intervene just like the territory did when they subsidized a 13-per-cent rate hike from the Northwest Territories Power Corporation last month.

"It's affecting pretty much everyone in the community," Nasogaluak said. "Whether it is just homeowners with their own vehicles, it's also affecting the harvesters. It's very expensive to fill up your snowmobiles."

Most fuel trucked in Inuvik

MervenGruben, vice-presidentfor E.Gruben'sTransport Ltd., sayshis company had to pass on thehigh prices to residents after the Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL) Limited cancelled several of the companys fuel shipments.

"They (NTCL) committed to hauling all the fuel and gas in for us and the next thing they tell us is no and then we are left scrambling to get trucks of fuel and gas up to Inuvik and barge it further on to Tuktoyaktuk," Gruben said.

Gruben says every yearhis company orders three million litres of heating fuel and diesel and 700,000 litres of gasoline.

This year barges only delivered 600,000litresof diesel directly to Tuktoyaktuk. The rest was trucked from Yukon to Inuvik, and then barged to the community.

"All the prices add up and we can't eat all those costs ourselves."

GNWT doesn't subsidize Tuk

In an email response, the territorial government said its Petroleum Products Division does not deliver or subsidize fuel to the community of Tuktoyaktuk.

It's unclear from the email whether this would change in the future.

If it doesn't,Nasogaluak says "it's going to be an extremely difficult winter" for people in his community.