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TUKTOYAKTUK
The plans to power Tuktoyaktuk's energy needs with natural gas has hit a roadblock after a feasibility prepared by Calgary-based Brackman Energy Consulting Ltd. concluded the proposed project wouldn't be economical.

The report was received last week and Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben is disappointed with the conclusion.

"I just got a bad report back from the feasibility study," Gruben said. "It says that it's not feasible according to what they were looking at. It's people in Calgary doing the studies, not up here, so their people aren't on the ground here."

Gruben said the consultants took a different and more expensive approach to the development of the infrastructure.

"What I wanted to do and what I suggested is a lot cheaper," Gruben said. "(I wanted to) run natural gas turbines out at the well site and run power lines into town and run the whole town on electricity, not running a natural gas pipeline from the well site into town and running a generator and gasifying the whole town."

Tuktoyaktuk sits above a substantial natural gas reserve, one of Canada's largest, which is part of the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project. The project calls for natural gas from the Beaufort Delta to be shipped by pipeline to southern Canada.

Devon Canada, a Calgary-based extraction company, has an operational well in the area and agreements are in place to allow residents to use the infrastructure, Gruben said.

The outcome of the report could have been very different had crews from Brackman come North to explore the options, Gruben said.

"They put the numbers together and it's way out to lunch, for sure," Gruben said. "But they never really came here and took into consideration what we wanted and a cheaper way of doing things."

The mayor wouldn't disclose an estimated cost for the project given by the consultant but said if the project goes through it would create substantial savings for Tuk residents.

"Everybody wants it to go ahead, it was one of the things I've been working on," Gruben said. "This would be a lot cheaper (of an option) ... it would be better for the community."

Currently Tuk brings in three to four million litres of diesel fuel by barge each year to generate power for the community's 880 residents, something that needs to be looked at, according to David Ramsay, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

"We've got to come up with solutions, and one of the objectives is to get communities off of diesel ... so maybe there is a way forward and we remain committed to try to find a way forward by working with the communities in the Beaufort Delta," Ramsay said.

The feasibility report isn't the final step in the process. Officials from the territorial government and the community will review the report and discuss the remaining options on the table.

"It's still early days yet, we haven't had a chance to (review the report) yet," Ramsay said on Friday. "We shared that information with the mayor because he's been a big proponent of trying to get natural gas conversion for his community, so the decision was made to include the mayor."

Regardless of the criticism toward the project, Gruben remains positive the conversion will happen in the future.

"It's not a dead issue. We're still working on it," Gruben said. "Just like the all-weather-road, it's going to happen."

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