The High Arctic community of Grise Fiord is running low on A-1 jet fuel, long before the annual re-supply will come in by sealift.

This is the third community in Nunavut this year to run into fuel supply problems.

Lorne Kusugak, Nunavut's minister of Community and Government Services, said the government is still trying to figure out what happened.

Last week, there was word that the communities of Sanikiluaq and Repulse Bay were running low on diesel. On Thursday, Kusugak confirmed that Grise Fiord is low on jet fuel.

“Today was the first day that I had heard about it, the first day the community had heard about it,” said Ron Elliott, the member of the legislative assembly for Quttiktuq, which includes Grise Fiord.

Now, the government plans to fly drums of jet fuel to the community. Extra diesel is also being sent to Sanikiluaq and Repulse Bay.

Kusugak said he wants to figure out whether there were simple miscalculations, or whether there is a need for a longer-term fix.

“If there’s more vehicles and more airline travel and more snowmobiles, more houses and more infrastructure, eventually your storage of fuel cannot keep up,” said Kusugak.

Kusugak said no community in the territory will run out of fuel. He said enough will be airlifted to see communities through until the next sealift.