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INUVIK
A nine-hour power outage in early December has raised alarm bells for town council.

Jim MacDonald, Inuvik's deputy mayor, pushes the start button on one of the two microturbines at Midnight Sun Recreation Complex, which the Town of Inuvik took ownership of from Northwest Territories Power Corporation on Dec. 12. - photo courtesy of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation

Councillors expressed concern about the lack of communication between the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) and the town on Dec. 2 when about 100 customers on the west side of Inuvik lost power.

NTPC workers reportedly alerted the fire chief several hours after the power initially went out. However, no call was ever made to town officials, said council members.

Senior administrative officer Grant Hood and deputy mayor Jim McDonald discussed the communication issue with NTPC and the company promised to alert the town during future outages.

Bob Kelly, NTPC communications manager, later echoed that promise.

"In this case it was simply something that was overlooked," Kelly said.

"There is a protocol in place to provide notification depending on the severity and the length of the outage. So this has caused us to review those protocols to ensure that whoever needs to be notified will be notified in a timely manner."

Taking ownership

Council discussed the possibility of fixing part of a microturbine system which has been producing electricity and heat at the Midnight Sun Recreation for the past decade.

Ownership of the system was transferred from NTPC to the town of Inuvik on Dec. 12. Since 2002, NTPC has operated the two microturbines as part of a 10-year project to test the technology.

Each of the microturbines can generate 30 kilowatts of electricity and 60 kilowatts of heat. However, only one of the units is operating and the other needs extensive work.

Deputy mayor Jim McDonald said he felt the town should look into the cost of fixing the microturbine, because it could save the complex money.

Crime stats

Although crime rates have gone down since October, overall crime was higher in November than during the same period in 2011, Cpl. Mark Phillips told council on Dec. 10.

During the month of November, a total of 354 violations were committed compared with 319 last year.

However, the number of break and enters decreased greatly. Motor vehicle thefts were also down, along with the number of incidents of mischief. Meanwhile, liquor act violations were up to 24 from seven and impaired driving incidents increased to six from two. Additionally, there was one arrest for possession and another for theft over $5,000.

November 2012
Assaults: 19
Break and enters: 1
Theft of a motor vehicle: 4
Theft under $5,000: 8
Theft over $5,000: 1
Drugs (possession): 1
Drugs (trafficking): 0
Liquor act: 24
Causing a disturbance: 134
Impaired driving: 6
Other complaints: 197
Total violations: 354
Total calls for service: 395

November 2011
Assaults: 20
Break and enters: 8
Theft of a motor vehicle: 10
Theft under $5,000: 8
Theft over $5,000: 0
Drugs (possession): 0
Drugs (trafficking): 0
Liquor act: 7
Causing a disturbance: 167
Impaired driving: 2
Other complaints: 139
Total violations: 319
Total calls for service: 361

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