John Barker
Northern News Services

Paulatu (Sep 16/02) - Life can be different here in the sealift North.

Take potato chips, for instance. David Foster figures residents of sealift communities like Paulatuk years ago "must have thought potato chips came powdered" because that's how they often were when they got them.

"We'd ship the potato chips on top of the load, of course, so they wouldn't get crushed. But they were covered with canvas tarps, which people would often have to crawl across to get at the load," says Foster, manager of Mackenzie Delta operations and logistics for Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) in Tuktoyaktuk.

"I'm sure some Northerners thought potato chips came powdered."

That was in the old days, Foster says. Now, everything is shipped in sturdy metal sealift containers. The days of the canvass tarp are long gone.

Stories like that, while amusing, make Mike Beaulieu, the North West Company's director of sales and operations for the Mackenzie River region in Yellowknife, cringe a bit.

Beaulieu's company operates the Northern store in Paulatuk and he says the media sometimes like to do a quick-hit story focusing on things like the popularity of potato chips and pop, reinforcing stereotypes of the unhealthy eating habits of some isolated Northerners.

And besides, Beaulieu says, airports in communities like Paulatuk in recent years have made delivery of fresh produce -- along with potato chips, which have a best-before freshness date -- possible year-round.

The Northern store opened in Paulatuk in April 2001 and also houses the Paulatuk Visitors Centre, Paulatuk Community Corporation, Paulatuk Hunters and Trappers Organization and a Parks Canada office, he says. "We're a responsible partner in the community," he says.

Fair enough, but Foster insists that, however you choose to look at it, the fact remains sealift communities such as Paulatuk get an "absolutely unbelievable amount of pop, chips and chocolate bars" shipped in.

"It has to be seven or eight times the national average," Foster says.

"They must build up a sweet tooth."

Paulatuk Mayor Keith Dodge doesn't dispute that junk food is popular in the hamlet of 286 residents.

"The price of pop definitely comes down from about $2 a can to $1.75 a can" after the August sealift, Dodge says.