SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - With the highway severed by a stranded ferry and facing falling fuel supplies, a propane company has appealed to the GNWT to declare a state of emergency.

Yellowknife residents lined up for hours Thursday at the Monkey Tree Gas Bar, one of the few places in the city still selling gas. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo Running dry Gastown ran out of fuel on Thursday just before noon selling at $1.21/litre. YK Motors gas station ran out Wednesday at 6 p.m. selling at $1.189 regular; $1.249 full service. The Petro-Canada bulk plant stopped selling to regular customers Thursday at noon, and had a "minimal" amount left over for emergency vehicles. It was selling at $1.21/litre. Mac's ran out of regular gas Tuesday at $1.169 per litre, and was depleted of the premium variety on Wednesday. Co-op ran out on Monday. It was selling gas for $1.169/litre. The Monkey Tree Gas Bar only had premium gas left on Thursday, selling for $1.35/litre.

Superior Propane, which has started to fly in fuel for customers, sent a letter to Premier Floyd Roland on Tuesday to make the request, but it has since been denied.

Drew Williams, Roland's press secretary, said there isn't a state of emergency in the GNWT's assessment.

Gas stations across the city now face a tough choice: either pay high costs to have fuel flown into the city or wait and see if the Merv Hardie ferry starts operating again this weekend.

"We got a request in (for flight services), but ... we're not going to fly anything over that river until we know for sure that ferry is not going into the water until next week," said Mike Dove, assistant manager at the Petro-Canada bulk plant.

Dove said the store stopped selling gasoline to regular customers on Thursday at noon, but did save a "minimal" amount for emergency vehicles such as the RCMP. He estimated the fuel left over would be gone in a couple of hours if available to the general public.

However, the situation is looking promising, especially given the recent rise in water levels, according to Earl Blacklock, manager of public affairs and communications for the GNWT's Department of Transportation. As of 8:15 a.m. Thursday, water levels at the Mackenzie River had risen to 149.575 metres above sea level from 149.423 metres at the same time the day before.

By 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, water levels dropped slightly to 149.569 metres. This is still below the 149.8 to 150 metres needed for heavy trucks, such as fuel tankers and tractor trailers, to cross on the ferry. Even so, Blacklock is hopeful the ferry, which stopped running on Nov. 17, can resume carrying heavy trucks as early as this weekend, or by Tuesday evening at the latest. He said the general public may be able to use the ferry again as early as Tuesday evening and as late as Friday. Heavy trucks are given priority because they transport fuel and other essential supplies, he explained.

Gastown Ltd., decided not to wait for ferry services to resume. Jamie Pye, manager of the business, was hopeful 5,000 litres of fuel would be flown in by First Air before the end of Thursday.

The additional cost would be passed on to customers, but the price per litre for the airlifted fuel was not something the outlet was prepared to reveal on Thursday.

By the time it opened on Thursday, Gastown was down to 2,000 litres of fuel from its previous supply. By 10:40 a.m., Pye estimated only about 300 litres remained. The store had capped the amount of fuel each customer could purchase at $40.

"We're just trying to ration it off to make sure people have enough to take their kids to school and get to work," he said.

By 2 p.m., an employee who didn't want to be identified said Pye had gone home for the day and the station ran out of gas just before noon.

None of the gas stations Yellowknifer spoke with on Thursday indicated how much it would cost to have fuel flown into the city. Superior Propane has been having propane flown into the city since Monday, said Doug Elliott, vice-president of commercial operations for the company's office in Mississauga, Ont.

He said Monday's flight with First Air flight contained 18,000 litres at a cost of $21,000 to Superior Propane. Since then, there have been two additional flights carrying propane on Tuesday and Wednesday and three flights were scheduled for Thursday, all at the same rate of cost.

Elliott also said that any extra costs would be passed on to the customer, but said he didn't know how much that would be. Elliott wouldn't disclose how much propane was selling for in Yellowknife out of "respect (for) customer confidentiality."

Some residents' patience with the dwindling gas situation is wearing thin. Nancy Kornichuk sat in a line-up at the Monkey Tree Gas Bar for about an hour and a half on Thursday. At 2.10 p.m., she was five cars away from the gas pump.

"In the 30 years I've lived in Yellowknife, this has never happened," she said.

Moments later she shut the car off.

"If I kept it running, I would run out of gas," she said.

An employee estimated the station only had about three hours of gas left. Also in line was a City Cab driver who said the situation was "ridiculous" for a capital city. "I haven't been able to work all day," he said.

- with files from Tim Edwards

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