Federated Co-operated Ltd. (FCL) says it is preparing for fuel outages at some of its gas bars in Saskatoon.
“Many of our gas bars are quickly getting low on fuel and we expect we’ll be facing outages within the next couple of days,” the Saskatoon Co-op Association said in a letter to its employees.
“We’ll be forced to make some difficult decisions and we may need to temporarily close some sites.”
This will result in shorter shifts for staff and lost profits, the Saskatoon Co-op Association said.
On Thursday, FCL said it has plenty of fuel at their Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina, but can’t transport it due to the blockades placed by Unifor.
“Unfortunately, Unifor insists on maintaining these illegal blockades in Alberta and the Co-op Refinery Complex in Regina and now at two, third-party terminals in Winnipeg. We simply can’t move the fuel,” said Vic Huard, executive vice-president of customer experience and stakeholder engagement for FCL.
In the meantime, FCL has a prioritization plan in place.
“We are going to ensure that critical infrastructure like ambulance, fire, police have fuel. Next, we’re going to ensure that people who rely on Co-op for home heating have their fuel available to them,” Huard said.
Co-op gas stations in Winnipeg were experiencing gas outages on Thursday.
“All of our sites are experiencing shortages of fuel products. It’s an active situation, and Red River Co-op is currently asking our members to reach out to their favourite locations for live updates, as it changes as trucks arrive on site,” a Co-op spokesperson said.
“Our five card locks are operating at limited capacity.”
The remaining Red River Co-op gas stations inside the city are likely to run out by Friday.
FCL has also rationed fuel at its card locks across the Prairies. Card lock users are being restricted to 300 litres of diesel per day and 100 litres of gasoline per day on their card.
A division of Unifor represents some Global news employees.
-With files from Elisha Dacey.