Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 16/99) - Arctic Frontier Carriers co-managers Mark and Joanne Loan are preparing to tell their 25 employees the bad news.

City of Yellowknife councillors have endorsed the creation of a new transit system and it looks like Calgary-based Cardinal Coach Lines will be providing the service.

"This company will be wiped out," Loan said.

Arctic Carriers has 18 busses and has provided the city and school system transportation for 10 years. With an infusion of capital from a new contract, Arctic Carriers planned to totally overhaul their busses and provide a more comprehensive service.

Loan helped plan the new route system that was accepted and he's worked closely with transit consultants. He said the city was not up-front about the decision-making process.

"Once the city collected the request for proposals, it was clearly stated they became the property of the city -- which in my mind means they are public property," Loan said.

"From the time the proposals were received, the public had nothing to do with this. It has strictly been administration making decisions behind closed doors. I expected the whole process to be much more open."

Cardinal, a large southern company, was able to offer the city a 15-year capitalization plan. By stretching payments for the new busses and infrastructure over 15 years, annual payments came way down.

This is something Loan and Arctic Carriers could not compete against.

Loan says the plan doesn't take into account the Northern aspects of the company they operate, and the benefits to the community they represent. Besides having long-time Northern employees, Arctic Carriers spends $1 million a year in Yellowknife.

"We buy our tires, oil, parts -- everything -- locally. If we can buy locally we will. A large southern company can get their parts cheaper in the south and ship them up," Loan said.

"It's not just us that will be affected by this."