INUVIK - A lengthy power outage on the night of Nov. 4 appeared to be the last straw for Inuvik town council, which is now demanding the territorial government pay for an independent audit on the NWT Power Corp. (NTPC) and the town power plant.

"I want an audit of the plant from the ground up," said Coun. Vince Sharpe. "It's not something I request, it's something that I damn well demand. It needs to happen, enough is enough."

Sharpe's sentiment was echoed by almost every member of council at Monday's committee of the whole meeting. Coun. Clarence Wood said the number of outages in the past couple of months has reached a "ridiculous" level.

The town lost power at about 7:30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, Nov. 4 and endured lengthy stretches without electricity until it was fully restored at 12:30 a.m. There were also brief power outages on Friday and Saturday.

Councillors agreed to send a letter to Premier Floyd Roland, the minister responsible for the power corp., stating Inuvik residents have lost faith in NTPC's ability to provide reliable power to the town, and asking for an audit to be completed. The document will be copied to power corp. management. Council was expected to officially vote on drafting the letter at Wednesday's regular meeting.

Sharpe said he visited the town's power plant during Thursday's outage, and was told by an employee the system broke down the same way it did on Sept. 28, when the town went without power for seven to 10 hours.

He also pointed out power corp. officials promised at public meetings held in town on Oct. 27 and 28, that such a collapse would not happen again. With winter just around the corner, Sharpe said he wants assurance that residents won't be faced with more extended outages.

"We're getting into cold weather," he said. "How are they going to guarantee us that this is not going to happen again and have our utilidor freeze up?"

Mike Bradshaw, NTPC spokesman, denied the outage was caused by the same set of circumstances, insisting the latest outage was due to human error.

He said the corporation is currently investigating the matter and will get to the bottom of it.

He wouldn't comment on council's audit demand but he said he empathized with the councillors' frustration.

"There's no question we've lost a lot of customer confidence over the last couple of months," he said. "I think council is doing its job representing the interests of the community. If I was a member of council I would want some answers, too."

Bradshaw said the plant has undergone several upgrades since the Sept. 28 blackout and subsequent power surge on Oct. 8 that damaged and ruined several electrical items in town. The power corp. hired an engineering company to review the incident, which has since been completed and follow up work is being completed, said Bradshaw.

"We've turned the corner on some of the system issues," he said.

Inuvik resident David Kaufman attended the meeting and told council he believed an audit would do no good.

"I have no faith that the power corp. would have the ability to correct anything in an audit," he said. "It's a joke."

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