Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Feb 25/00) - Inuvik Town Council is concerned enough over the steadily rising cost of fuel in town that it has sent a letter of protest to local distributor Arctic Dove.

Coun. Clarence Wood and deputy mayor Peter Clarkson were among those who raised the issue at a recent council meeting, though they added there is little hope that supplier Imperial Oil would heed their concerns.

"It will have absolutely no impact," he said. "The only purpose of sending the letter is to make them understand we are unhappy; we're not a big enough market for them to worry about."

Wood said Inuvik is also caught in a different situation than most other communities. The vast majority of communities in the region receive their fuel supplies through the territorial government, at the same prices for which the fuel was purchased at the start of the season, when costs are lower. Inuvik, like Tuktoyaktuk, where E. Gruben's Transport recently took over distribution, is supplied by private means.

"The government will never compete with private industry," said Wood.

The price differences show up at the pump. The price of gasoline was 92 cents a litre in Inuvik on Tuesday, while in Tsiigehtchic it was 88.2 cents and in Sachs Harbour it was 85.9 and at the Arctic Esso station in Yellowknife is was 82.9. The differences are also reflected in the costs of diesel fuel and heating oil.

Aside from high prices, however, Inuvik town councillors also say they're concerned by the fact that the price of local fuel rises through the winter despite the fact that Imperial buys in bulk and ships it North in summer, at a significantly lower cost. Moreover, Wood and Clarkson have complained that while the prices rise in relation to global increases, they never appear to drop when world prices do.

Arctic Dove referred all questions to Imperial Oil. Reached in Calgary on Monday, company public affairs officer Pius Rolheiser said the company moved to its current system of "market responsive pricing" in the North in 1995, when the Proven Area Agreement it held with the federal government, and which regulated prices, wrapped up. He said the company has since indexed its fuel prices with those in Edmonton, so that when the Edmonton price rises so does the Inuvik.

"If you look at what Imperial Oil owns if a barge comes up in the summer, all the products are part of an inventory, so if we're holding this lower-priced inventory when the rest of the country goes up then that inventory becomes more expensive for us to hold," he said. "We certainly appreciate that it's frustrating for consumers when they see the prices rise."

Rolheiser also said cheaper, lower-grade gasoline available in the south isn't sold in the North and its extreme operating conditions. He added that while it may appear that fuel prices never drop once they've risen, they do -- though just not in the last two years.

"The point is that when we have market responsive pricing, prices will go down," he said. "It's just that these past two winters the price of crude oil is as high as it was during the Persian Gulf War, and so all inventories are affected."