Fuel shortage impacting four Nunavut airports

Canadian North said its fuel provider has issued a notice for Pond Inlet, Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay and Arctic Bay airports

There is no word on the cause of a fuel shortage impacting flights in and out of four High Arctic communities in Nunavut, or how long the shortage is expected to last. (Photo by Dustin Patar)

By Meral Jamal

A fuel shortage will affect four Nunavut airports moving forward, according to an Aug. 16 announcement from Canadian North. 

The northern airline said its fuel provider has issued a shortage notice for airports in Pond Inlet, Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay and Arctic Bay. 

The shortage led to a flight cancellation from Resolute Bay to Grise Fiord on Monday, but the airline said it has purchased additional fuel locally, which will help it operate on schedule for the rest of the week.

The lack of fuel will impact flights from Iqaluit to the four communities moving forward as well, with Canadian North limiting the number of passengers and volume of cargo on each flight. 

“This means, for the High Arctic communities, that there are fewer seats available for sale and that there may be some delays to cargo shipments,” the airline said in its announcement.

“In some cases we’ve also had to add additional fuel stops to our flight routings which can extend the transit times of our passengers and cargo.”

The airline is taking steps to mitigate these disruptions, Canadian North added, with some of the airports receiving more fuel following an annual fuel resupply in the coming weeks

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(14) Comments:

  1. Posted by Gone Nunavut on

    All Government of Nunavut departments need to get their act together or send the beaucrats back home! GN’s Petroleum Products Division controls how much fuel is delivered to each community. All PPD contractors have no say in it. This is FUBAR!

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    • Posted by Don’t Panic on

      PPD needs to have the power to increase prices once this situation is on the horizon, to decrease the quantity demanded and make sure the remaining fuel is prioritized for those who are willing to pay.

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      • Posted by Northern Inuit on

        Jet Fuel in Yellowknife is $2.193 a litre.

        $1.596 a litre in Nunavut.

        guess where the Airlines will top off

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        • Posted by Geography on

          You do realize thousands of KMs between these places mean you would use more fuel then your savings

      • Posted by Wrong approach on

        This is not the solution. The solution is invest in infrastructure and order more fuel. Fuel price hikes only affect customers. Since the GN is the biggest customer they would just be moving money from health to ppd

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  2. Posted by Solidarity Fornever on

    Who has been asleep at the switch, or, in this case, on vacaction without proper planning?
    .
    Four years to renew the NEU contract and an after-tax, after-inflation pay cut. I expect things to get a lot worse.

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  3. Posted by Manapik on

    Send in the RCAF and the ship that relocated the Inuit to no man’s land. The Government displaced the Inuit there for Canadian sovereignty. Everything in Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay should be given freely to the Inuit.

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    • Posted by Or on

      Or we can abandon these useless outposts and move people free of charge to the nearest city of their choice.

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  4. Posted by Eskimofo on

    build more houses. build more roads. build more arenas. build more health centres. build new runways. build new schools them kids burnt two years ago.

    um. where you going to get the fuel? the tanks are already at capacity and you haven’t given them new money to build tanks in 30 years. how are you doing to build more when you don’t have the fuel to store it now?

    easy to ask ask ask but look at your capacity and what you have invested in. wait, what the GNWT invested in decades ago. everyone wants money from the same wallet and not enough foresight to our needs of today and tomorrow.

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  5. Posted by alex on

    They could easily bring their own fuel in the cargo area….its a cargo plane….Canadian North is just playing the, we want to save money card, and further monopolize our already monopolized situation. Next theyll be asking for free fuel from GN

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    • Posted by Wait, what? on

      This is what the lowest education levels in Canada looks like when you translate it into the real world.

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    • Posted by Northern Inuit on

      ffs they are not simply taking the boat over to do some hunting and carry another 20 gallons in the back of the boat.

      sheesh.

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  6. Posted by Facebook Journalism on

    Is this what Journalism has come to? Just take a Facebook post and add some word count and it is a story? Where is the holding PPD to the fire? Asking them why this happens year after year? How much more fuel have they ordered this year?

    Come on!

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    • Posted by Northern Inuit on

      because their tanks are at capacity.

      it’s like filling up your snowmobile full then trying to drive from Gjoa Haven to Kugaaruk on one tank. you will run out of fuel then have your cousin drive to bring you more.

      then fill your tank at Kugaaruk and drive to Gjoa on the same tank expecting different results.

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