-Aboriginals in Labrador are hoping a new fuel that doesn't intoxicate gas sniffers could help solve a persistent problem among young people in their communities.
But even though BP has offered the formula free to anyone who promises to produce it, it's still not clear how Opal gas, developed in Australia, could be brought to the Canadian communities that want it.
"We'd love to have it available in Canada," said BP spokeswoman Anita Perry. "The issue really is logistics."
Opal gas was developed as a partial response to the problem of gas-sniffing in aboriginal communities in Australia.
Daniel Pottle, a member of the Nunatsiavut government created by the Labrador Inuit land claim, heard about the product last Christmas through contacts with a business development group at Newfoundland's Memorial University. Intrigued, he travelled Down Under this spring with a delegation of Inuu, Inuit and government officials to see what Opal's effect has been.
"Where the product is being used, gas sniffing is no longer an issue," he said. "We came back with a very positive impression of this product."
Gas-sniffing has long been an issue in Labrador's aboriginal communities.
In 2002, the entire community of Davis Inlet was relocated after footage of gas-sniffing children, screaming they wanted to die, was broadcast worldwide. Just three years later, and after $160 million in moving costs, the chief of the new community Natuashish was forced to admit that the problem was again out of control.
Several dozen children are still regular sniffers in aboriginal communities in Labrador, said Pottle, who added the social conditions behind sniffing are very similar to those he saw when he visited the Australian community of Papunya.
Isolation, poverty and substance abuse are also problems there.
"The dynamic we saw is so similar you could have been sitting in a room in northern Labrador."
In Australia, Opal is offered in communities that ask for it, although they must also have treatment programs in place.
The extra cost of the fuel, which costs 30 cents more per litre than regular fuel, is covered by the Australian government.
Although Opal has yet to be tested in cold weather, Pottle would like to see a similar program.
"What we're doing now is putting together a proposal to different levels of government to further this initiative." That proposal should be ready by the end of summer.
BP has been in contact with Pottle's group, said Perry, but the problem is that BP doesn't have a refinery in Canada.
"Our problem is sourcing the product here. As much as we would love to do it, I don't know where we would do it," she said.
Perry added that BP would be willing to co-operate with another refiner to produce Opal and would even provide the formula free of charge.
"We would be wide open if another company wants to make it. It's a great program."
Pottle acknowledges that Opal isn't the whole solution because gas sniffing is a symptom of a larger problem.
Still, Opal could be a start to the end of a tragic problem in some aboriginal communities.
"It could help us as a deterrent," Pottle said. "If the (intoxicant's) no longer there, they won't use it."
