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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Department of National Defence (DND) is looking at what could be a hefty bill for costs associated with a Feb. 13 incident in which a military helicopter severed high-voltage power lines.

Claims are expected to be filed by both the NWT Power Corporation and (NTPC) the City of Yellowknife.

NTPC chair Brendan Bell said Tuesday that he has been assured that the military will cover any costs associated with repairing the broken lines and that the costs won't be passed on to consumers.

"At the end of the day we will sit down with DND and work through the costs," said Bell. "But they've given us assurances that this won't be a ratepayer burden."

He said those costs are expected to include the repairs themselves, as well as possibly the cost of diesel fuel used at the Jackfish power station, which has been the primary source of electicity for Yellowknife since the lines connecting Yellowknife to Snare Hydro were cut last week.

"You can appreciate that our focus has been on getting the repairs done as quickly as possible because every day that we have to burn additional diesel fuel, the costs go up," said Bell. He couldn't provide an estimate of total costs.

Robert Schmidt, director of hydro for NTPC, was able to give some sense of how much diesel fuel is being consumed.

"I'm going to say at least 100,000 litres a day," said Schmidt. "I can't comment as to what the actual fuel price will be.

"My understanding, the claim will be based on simply had they not hit the line, these would have been our operational costs, and after they did, this is our operational cost," said Schmidt.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said once things are back to normal, DND can expect a bill from the city.

"We would be pretty quick at submitting," said Van Tighem. "It could be as early as Friday, it could be two weeks from then."

He said the primary claim would be for the city's use of diesel fuel, which he said has cost approximately $10,000 by Monday since the Feb. 13 incident.

Schmidt said repairs could be complete as early as Thursday and a cost estimate can be completed once the Snare line is back in service.

"We do want to help in any way possible, and we want to make sure ... if it was a government of Canada Canadian Forces asset, we want to make sure that the impact on the people of Yellowknife is minimized," said Lt. (Navy) Paul Pendergast.

Schmidt said mild temperatures and a reduction in peak-hour consumption has resulted in no rolling outages. One power outage in Yellowknife since Feb. 13 was from an unrelated cause.

Mike Huvenaars, assistant superintendent of business for Yellowknife Catholic Schools, said Weledeh School and St. Patrick High School have been operating on generators on an intermittent basis to help keep the load off the system, as well as doing simple things like making sure lights are out when not in use.

"As a member of this community and wanting to help everyone, I mean, those are some of the things we need to do," said Huvenaars.

He said a decision has not been made on whether to bill the military for the fuel used by the district's generators.

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