Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 4, 2008

Nunavut - While all Nunavummiut are reaching deeper into their pockets to pay for fuel, the effect of the fuel increase on communities can be as diverse as the land itself. Fuel costs in Nunavut were increased by 22 cents per litre on July 1, a price that is being blamed on high world oil prices.

The fuel pump in Rankin Inlet. Gas prices in Nunavut went up by 22 cents per litre on July 1.

Everyone in the territory will feel the squeeze no matter what their use for fuel, but Grise Fiord senior administrative officer Marty Kuluguqtuq said the cost of airfare and shipping to Grise Fiord are going to be the biggest consequences there. Grise Fiord sits on the southern point of Ellesmere Island and is the most northerly civilian settlement in Canada.

“To top it all off, our price for airfare is already high so transportation airfare is going to go up,” he said. “We’re already one of the highest airfare cases that I know of and it’s going to go up again. Airfare is going to be most affected, in my opinion.”

Kuluguqtuq said he was surprised when the announcement about the increase was made.

“Well, a lot of us did not expect it to be that high,” he said. “We knew it was going to come one way or another because obviously we’re not immune to the world prices, but a 22 cent increase -- that’s going to hurt a lot of people in their pockets to tell you the truth, in terms of cash.”

Kuluguqtuq said the territorial government should have given the municipalities notice that the increase was going to be that high so communities could get prepared.

“A lot of people thought it was a big jump and we should have been warned about such an increase so that we could implement this in a more manageable manner,” he said.

Mike Richards, senior administrative officer for Pond Inlet, said his community will also be paying the accumulated costs of high transportation prices. However, he said it will likely be the people who rely on hunting as their main source of food that will bear the brunt of the increase initially. Many people in Pond Inlet rely heavily on subsistence hunting, according to Richards.

“It’s going to affect the hunters right away,” Richards said. “It’s going to impact the lower income people that really need it for subsistence hunting and things. They’re going to feel it most dramatically at first.”

Jayko Alooloo, chairman of the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization in Pond Inlet agreed.

“If I want to go out for a day by snowmobile for seal hunting, that will cost me over $100 for gas for 15 to 20 gallons,” he said. “So if I go out to seal hunt for a day, if I don’t get anything, if I’m unsuccessful for some reason, I’ve burnt gas at over $100 for nothing.”

He said it’s not just the cost of fueling up vehicles that will affect hunters, but other costs like naphtha for Coleman stoves as well.

“I heard every fuel product will be increased,” Alooloo said. “Right now (naphtha) is a little over $6 a gallon; if it increases it will also affect family camping.”