Canada: Sugar shortage hits Greater Victoria grocery stores, bakers amid labour dispute at refinery

Cindy Wong couldn’t believe her luck Tuesday morning when she found three one-kilogram bags of white sugar at the Red Barn Market on Oak Bay Avenue. “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad. I’m so lucky,” she said with a smile. “It’s a gold mine. Even though it’s a little more expensive, I’m taking it.” With a supply crunch caused by an eight-week strike at Rogers Sugar refinery in Vancouver, Wong had been running all over town to find sugar for her Christmas baking. “This morning, I went to Country Grocer on Royal Oak. That was the first place I hit. Then I went to London Drugs on Quadra. Nothing. Thrifty Foods on Quadra. Nothing. It’s all gone. So then I went to Fairway on Shelbourne. Nothing. I was tempted to buy really expensive cane sugar, but it’s not the same as white sugar,”said Wong, who had also called Costco. Signs on the sugar shelf at Red Barn said “temporarily out of stock,” but an employee had just found 10 one-kilogram bags of white sugar. “That’s the last one for a while,” he ...