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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City transit passes were once a hot item at Sutherland's Drugs, so hot store management felt they had to stop selling them because city hall either wouldn't or couldn't keep up with the demand.

Dana Martin, a manager at Sutherland's Drugs, can only throw her hands up and ask why? The store recently stopped selling bus passes because the city wouldn't provide more when they ran out. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Sutherland's dropped the bus passes at the beginning of February after growing tired of turning away unhappy and empty-handed customers and finding no help from staff at city hall.

"We were constantly having to send people to city hall to get them because we were sold out," said Stephen Gwilliam, the store's co-owner.

"We would call and call and call and not get a response. We were taking a tremendous amount of flack from the people who we couldn't provide them to so we thought it would be better if they just didn't come here because we don't seem to be able to make them happy."

Sutherland's was one of four retail agents other than city hall where bus riders could come and purchase their choice of either a monthly or 11-ride punch pass ahead of time.

The store's manager, Dana Martin, said Sutherland's typically sold 460 $25 punch passes every year. Last year, the city gave them 15 monthly adult passes - which retail for $62 during the winter - and five $40 senior's passes for each month. That was a hike from previous years when the city allotted the store only 12 adult passes and three senior's passes for each month.

"I had to fight that," added Martin.

She said even with the increased allotment, Sutherland's often sold out before the start of the month and had to ask the city for more - an often futile exercise.

The city's lack of urgency on the bus passes finally convinced the store to bow out. Sutherland's also stopped selling $1 extra garbage tags in February for similar reasons.

Gwilliam said the financial incentive for selling the passes was minimal anyway. The city gave the store five per cent of the earnings, half or more of which were eaten up in credit card fees.

"Hardly worth our time to pick up the phone and call them," said Gwilliam.

Sutherland's isn't the only retailer frustrated with the city.

The downtown Reddi-Mart is also an official bus pass agent, but like Sutherland's, its owner has found herself chasing after the city for more bus passes.

"Last time, I had to go there and stand right there to get bus passes so I could bring them to my store," said Qui Pham.

"People kept coming in and asking for (passes) but they never gave them to us. Finally, I said to the customer, 'go (to city hall) and tell them I don't have any bus passes."

Pham believes there is not enough staff at city hall to deliver the passes to retailers.

City councillor Paul Falvo discovered the problem on Friday while in a rush to pick up punch passes before the bus came. He went into Sutherland's, which is right in between two bus stops on Franklin Ave., but was told the store no longer sells them.

He said it doesn't make sense that there aren't any passes for sale on the city's main drag.

"I think it shows that council needs to make this a higher priority because right now we expect Public Works to do this off the side of their desks in addition to everything else they're doing," said Falvo.

"We put a man on the moon 30 years ago, it shouldn't be that complicated."

The city's 2009 budget forecasts $183,000 in bus fares to be sold this year, an amount which has steadily risen over the years and that trend is projected to continue. Ridership was calculated at 155,000 passengers in 2005. The transit service costs the city more than a $1 million a year to run.

Wendy Alexander, an engineer with Public Works, said the city is currently revising its system for selling bus passes to provide "more efficiency," but said she couldn't provide any details.

Alexander said she hadn't heard of any complaints from retailers.

Bus passes are also sold at the Village Reddi-Mart on Old Airport Road and at the Yellowknife Direct Co-op.

Gwilliam said his store told the city that the passes should be sold online.

"We've suggested to them that they make some sort of electronic bus pass available through their website so that anyone could buy it from home," said Gwilliam.