‘Bad gas’ problem just needs a quick fix

SARA MINOGUE

Arctic snowmobilers may be the first Canadians to notice the absence of an octane-boosting additive that was removed from gasoline supplies across the country last year.

Suppliers voluntarily removed the additive, called MMT, from their fuel stocks for environmental reasons. But while most Canadians went on driving their cars as usual, some Nunavummiut have forsaken their snowmobiles altogether, afraid a breakdown could leave them stranded on the land.

Problems first appeared last November in Rankin Inlet, where hunters complained about a black sooty substance that forced them to change their spark plugs several times a day.

In January, similar reports were made in Pangnirtung, which at one point, was completely sold out of spark plugs. Last week, two members of Nunavut’s legislative assembly logged more complaints from the High Arctic.

Problems have not been reported elsewhere in Canada.

Unusually cold weather was initially blamed, but few Inuit believe the weather is colder this year than last year. Fuel tests, ordered by the Government of Nunavut’s Petroleum Products Division, which buys the fuel for Nunavut, only deepened the mystery. The gas appeared to meet both national and the more strict territorial standards.

Further testing — conducted on two brand new snowmobiles in Rankin Inlet, and in a special cold lab in Alberta — found that the two-stroke engines found in snowmobiles worked fine when the MMT additive was re-introduced.

Shell Canada, which supplied gas to the Kivalliq and Baffin regions last year, will spend $500,000 to re-introduce the additive in nine hamlets this month.

Shell sent representatives to Nunavut last week to answer questions about bad gas in the Legislative Assembly.

Several MLAs spoke passionately on behalf of their constituents, recalling the winter of 2002, when bad gas damaged snowmobiles across Nunavut, and led to $4 million in government compensation to those affected. That gas had been imported from the United States and was missing a cleansing additive.

“It’s a very touchy issue for a regular guy who doesn’t work and doesn’t make money,” said Peter Kattuk, MLA for Hudson Bay. “These people depend on their machines to put food on the table.

“It’s not only spark plugs,” he said, as he dumped a plastic shopping bag with a sooty piston and blackened spark plug onto his desk.

Patterk Netser, who represents two communities north of Rankin Inlet, said he’s often had to pay $28 a pop for new spark plugs for a brand new snowmobile he bought in December.

Three MLAs questioned Shell’s integrity for having supplied the gas that was damaging constituents’ machines. Shell refuted that charge.

“If it had failed testing, we would know,” said Mark Anderson, Shell’s national wholesale manager, urging MLAs to recognize the unique set of circumstances found in Nunavut.

Anderson said he uses the same gas in his snowmobile at -35 C in Winnipeg with no problems, but that the combination of cold weather and heavy loads — which often include sleds laden with fresh meat — created a different situation altogether.

“[Even] snowmobile manufacturers don’t do tests with MMT at -40 C under load,” Anderson said.

David Alagalak, the representative for Arviat, said hunters in his community had been idle all winter, afraid of getting stalled out on the land.

“I’m sure any components in the gas that will not work in certain areas of the world would be detected by chemists in your company,” Alagalak said. “I believe you should be apologizing to the hunters.”