Ice melting salt is a hot commodity in Prince Rupert | The Star

Safety salt is a hot commodity in Prince Rupert and residents may find it difficult to locate a bag from suppliers in the city during the ongoing cold snap.

As of Jan. 5, multiple retailers across town have run out of the ice melting product and some with remaining supplies have limited customers to buying one bag of salt per person.

“It’s become frustrating for everybody,” Maria Melo, manager at Prince Rupert Home Hardware Building Centre, said.

The problem seems to be a lack of supply that is being compounded by Prince Rupert’s remote location away from stock, Melo said, adding other winter supplies such as shovels are in good supply, and it is only melting salts they have run out of.

Orders kind of go by pecking order, due to location, she said. At the end of the day, somebody closer to the warehouse is probably going to get salt before us due to different load-up and delivery dates.

“So, someone closer might get it before us by the time they hit my order,” she said.

To be equitable to all customers, Melo placed a limit on customers to one bag each before supplies ran out.

“It wouldn’t be fair to sell somebody a whole skid and then have the rest of my customers struggling,” she said. “… but most customers are understanding because this is not normal weather for us. It’s a long stretch of super cold and snow.”

Though Melo has a lot of melting salt on backorder, the product will only be shipped once supplies are available. More salt should arrive by Jan. 10, she said.

Windsor Salt Ltd., which manufactures the recognizable large 10-kilogram yellow bags of salt is located in Ontario and ships salt to B.C. The Northern View has reached out to the company for comment.

While residents may be scrambling to snag a bag of salt, the City of Prince Rupert operations team is not experiencing salt supply issues at the moment, Veronika Stewart, communications manager, wrote in an email, so road maintenance can be kept up.

The Northern View reached out to some retailers in Prince Rupert to confirm the shortage of salt.

With files from K-J Millar