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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - When Brian McCutcheon had a bad experience recently with a business in Yellowknife, he decided he would make a complaint.

McCutcheon said he purchased two large store-branded water jugs for which he paid a $10 deposit. When he went to return the jugs, said McCutcheon, the store owner refused to give him back his deposit unless he had the receipt.

Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ellie Sasseville stands by her office window overlooking downtown Yellowknife. The chamber tries its best to deal with consumer complaints locally. - Lauren McKeon/NNSL photo

Then he discovered he had no way to complain about stores with "shoddy business" practices - anywhere in the NWT.

The Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus, which received more than 2.6 million complaints in its most recently recorded year of 2006, does not have offices in any of the three territories.

Registering a complaint with such a bureau "was my first thought," said McCutcheon. "When there are business practises that don't seem fair, there needs to be some place you can go and file a complaint or at least talk to someone about this."

The council, which is not-for-profit, offers impartial dispute resolution services between a business and its customer.

"Unless the (business owner) is actually breaking the law, the consumer doesn't really have any recourse other than simply to just talk to people," said McCutcheon.

It's not likely Yellowknife will host a Better Business Bureau any time soon either, said Canadian Better Business Council head Douglas Simpson.

"The issue I think for the NWT and the three territories in the North boils down to economics. Running a BBB is not only a costly process, it's costly because it's labour intensive," he said.

In some areas, like Yellowknife, there isn't a big enough business base - the organization is run by fees paid to it from local businesses to cover costs, said Simpson

"If we don't have a business base that can support the bureau, it's really very, very difficult if not impossible to set one up," he said.

The council hasn't completely abandoned the territories, however, Edmonton BBB head Chris Lawrence pointed out.

Consumers with complaints in the territories are asked to contact the provincial office closest to them. For Yellowknifers, this means contacting the bureau in Edmonton, which serves Central and Northern Alberta and the NWT in a pinch She said while her organization has no legal authority they warn consumers about particularly bad business on their website.

"We've been informally addressing complaints about businesses from Yellowknife and from consumers in Yellowknife ... for some time.

"Nobody has dropped the ball for consumers or businesses in the Northwest Territories," said Lawrence.

Within the past year, with some urgings from Lawrence, the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus officially named the Edmonton office as the go-to place for Yellowknife.

Lawrence added the distance between Yellowknife and Edmonton hasn't been a huge problem - with the help of email, telephone and teleconferencing.

Her office monitors about 60,000 businesses.

"We have a huge geographic territory, not just Yellowknife - but we have Fort McMurray, Grand Prairie, Red Deer, Lloydminster, Dawson Creek (and) Fort St. John," she said.

Lawrence admitted, however, not all Yellowknifers may know they can contact Edmonton to file a complaint or if they have an inquiry.

"Like every non-profit we probably don't do as good a marketing job as we could if we were flush with money."

Those looking for a local flavour anyway can always contact the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce, said executive director Ellie Sasseville.

"We're not the Better Business Bureau, but we have helped many a business and customers resolve issues in the past," she said.

"We're here and we're in town and quite often we have assisted businesses and customer with issues to help find good conflict resolution," she added.

Admittedly, even Sasseville has inquired with the BBB as to why there's not one set up in Yellowknife. But she's also satisfied the city doesn't necessarily need one.

"I think most of our Northern businesses operating out of Yellowknife do a really good job of making sure that they're meeting the needs of their own customers ... they want to keep you shopping in the North."