Internet outage gives Yellowknife grocer an expensive headache
Trevor's Independent Grocer loses an estimated $20,000 as business shut down during busiest time
Tuesday's internet outage had an expensive impact on Yellowknife's biggest grocery store. Trevor's Independent on Old Airport Road was forced to close shop for two hours following an internet outage in the city.
Nancy Olimpo, store manager on duty, said the grocery store lost approximately $20,000 during the outage.
"What can we do? Those are the things we can't control, right?" Olimpo said.
It was around 4:30 yesterday afternoon — the store's busiest time — when things started to go wrong.
Olimpo says that one-by-one their tills shut down until only one till remained open.
With plenty of customers still inside, she had to lock both the front and back doors to prevent the lineup at the single till from getting unmanageable.
"I have already too much people that is lined up on that till, and I'm not sure how long it will stay open," Olimpo said. "Each and every one of the tills is shutting down. That's why I have to lock the door."
Olimpo says the store was closed for about two hours with business back to normal by 6:30.
Northwestel reported damage to a fibre optic line west of Yellowknife along Highway 3 Tuesday afternoon. Service in the Yellowknife region was affected starting at approximately 1 p.m., and was reported fully restored by 8:40 p.m.
Costs show why fibre optic lines important, advocate says
The types of delays and costs Olimpo described are why fibre optic lines are critical for businesses, said Mike Sullivan, the executive director of the Canadian Common Ground Alliance, an advocacy group working to protect utilities like fibre optic lines from damage.
"Thankfully severe injuries and deaths don't occur when there are damages," he said, "but there's always a societal cost and impact."
"That might be the loss of business, service, evacuation … all of these things cost society money."
Instead of calling individual utility-providers, contractors would call the one-call centre, which would then do all the groundwork to make sure it's safe for the contractor to dig.
The Canadian Common Ground Alliance is advocating for legislation which would require utilities to register for a one-call service before digging, where those one-call services exist. The bill would also impose fines for when lines are hit, Sullivan said.
"When you have a one-call service [contractors] simply have to request a locate to one phone number," Sullivan said.
Northwestel has not said what caused the damage or provide any details of what happened Tuesday beyond confirming it was done by a "third party."
The company does not disclose specifics about damage and the company is investigating what happened, said Matt Wallace, a Northwestel spokesman.
With files from Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi