Cindy MacDougall
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 26/99) - The unexpected closure of ferry service across the Mackenzie River has shut down Yellowknife's only trucking route from the south.

And with the lack of trucks rumbling up Highway 3 with food, fuel and other essential products, Yellowknife businesses have had to find other ways of getting the goods.

"It's pretty well brought our trucking division to a halt," said Janet Robinson, risks manager for RTL Robinson Enterprises.

"Although, we are shuttling goods by helicopter that can be shuttled, such as things that can be (put on pallets.)"

The ferry stopped last week after a 14-kilometre ice jam caused severely low water levels.

Non-perishable groceries and other goods that are shipped on pallets, like toilet paper, are shuttled across the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence, where the ferry usually runs, she said.

Gerrit Waayenberg, assistant manager at the YK Centre Extra Foods, said the two grocery stores in town are flying in perishables such as milk, eggs and produce.

"We have stuff in the back, too, so it's not too bad," he said. "If we started getting into trouble, we could fly it all in."

However, the dairy product shelves at both the downtown and Range Lake Road stores were half empty Wednesday afternoon.

"I wanted two percent (milk), but they're all out," said shopper Doug Sanders as he loaded his cart with homogenized milk at the Range Lake Road location.

However, while perishables may becoming hard to come by in the city, there's no shortage of alcohol.

Ray Green, an employee at the Liquor Warehouse, said over 500 pallets of alcohol are sitting in the warehouse.

"There's no worries about running out of beer in the next couple of weeks," he said.

Robinson said her main concern isn't with milk and beer. She's worried about getting enough fuel into Yellowknife.

"We can't shuttle petroleum products over the crossing," she said. "That's critical."

The ferry was already scheduled to close early this year, when the ice crossing reached half of its maximum capacity, or 30,000 kilograms, according to Gerald Perron of the Department of Transportation.

Robinson said RTL was trying to ship enough fuel into Yellowknife to cover the time between the ferry's closure and the ice crossing reaching the maximum load capacity of 60,000 kilograms.

"This (the ferry closure) will greatly narrow the time frame we have to move a great deal of fuel," she said.

However, Robinson said there's no fuel shortage now.

As for medical supplies, Mike Huvenars, Stanton Regional Health Board's chief financial officer, said there's no need to worry.

"We have all of our essential supplies flown in," he said. That includes medicines, blood and blood products.

Perron said the department doesn't know when the ferry might reopen.

"There was a slight opening at the river mouth Friday, and we had some spill-over then," he said. "But there's still not enough water to safely operate the ferry."

Perron said transportation engineers cannot blast away the ice because the river mouth is a natural fish habitat, and the blasting would violate the federal Fisheries Act.

He said the ice crossing is being built, but the main channel of the river is still open.