SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Northland Utilities is once again accusing the power corp. of trying to expropriate it.

The latest accusation came at the Aug. 2 municipal services committee meeting at city hall. Councillors heard a presentation from Doug Tenney, vice-president of Northern development for Northland.

Similar to a pitch made in June to the legislative assembly's priorities and planning committee, made up of regular MLAs, Tenney once again said the territorial government, which owns and operates the power corp., is overcharging Yellowknifers by nine per cent on their power bills so that residential customers in other communities receive a 25-per-cent discount.

Northland gets power from the power corp. and distributes it to Yellowknife homes and businesses.

According to Tenney, the power corp. charges make up 75 per cent of customer rates while Northland's rates account for 25 per cent. He added that since 2010, the power corp. has increased its rates by about 40 per cent while Northland has increased its rates by about 13 per cent over the same time period.

"(The power corp.) decided that Yellowknife is a loser and Fort Smith and Fort Resolution are winners," Tenney said.

"Our customers are paying about 30 per cent more for power than customers in Fort Smith and Fort Resolution. That works out to about $500 for a residential customer."

Tenney added that Yellowknife businesses and residents have paid about $28 million extra than what they should have paid since 2008.

He said the reason power corp. is overcharging is because it wants to expropriate Northland and become the sole power provider in the NWT.

Yellowknife's contract with Northland expires in 2020 and Tenney said just like what has happened in Hay River in March, the corporation has its sights set on taking over Yellowknife's power distribution system after that.

Tenney said Northland still wants to work with the power corp. to lower rates by eliminating redundancies, duplication and inefficiencies.

He said that could be done if the two companies merge rather than a full blown takeover. He added that Northland has had a proposed merger on the table for years.

However, back in June, Louis Sebert, the minister responsible for the power corp. said back in June that he knew nothing of that proposal.

Power corp. spokesperson Pam Coulter stated in an e-mail that the corporation has not been asked to provide a proposal for the City of Yellowknife (power) franchise. She added that all residential power rates can be found online. Coulter also stated she could not comment further because they were not invited to the council meeting nor had she seen Tenney's presentation.

Coun. Rebecca Alty said the presentation made good food for thought.

"Power is pretty key now in our day and age. We have to continue to look for different alternatives and partnerships," Alty said.

Latham Island speeder crackdown

Councillors also heard Aug. 2 from Doug Gillard, manager of municipal enforcement, about a speed study done on Latham Island in late May and early June.

He told councillors it was implemented after complaints from area residents who stated that speeding on the island had become a significant issue. Gillard said once the study was done, Municipal Enforcement Division (MED) did some dedicated enforcement in the area, issuing tickets to drivers who were exceeding the posted speed limit.

"The entire area of Latham Island is 30 kilometres an hour. We did a few weeks of target enforcement ... we try at every opportunity to use an unmarked vehicle because it skews things if we put a marked vehicle on the side of the road," Gillard said.

"It wasn't a really serious issue with really high speeds ... but there were more vehicles consistently over the speed limit."

Gillard added officers have reported in recent weeks that the number of speeding offenders has significantly decreased since the blitz but that MED will continue to monitor the speed of drivers on Latham Island.

Empty seats in council chamber

It is not difficult to see by the number of municipal politicians and city staff absent from Tuesday's council meetings that Yellowknife in the middle of vacation season.

There were five councillors present at the Aug. 2 municipal services committee meeting at noon. Missing were Mayor Mark Heyck and councillors Niels Konge, Rommel Silverio and Steve Payne. On July 25, the committee meeting had to be cancelled due to the lack of quorum. At least five councillors are needed for an official meeting to go forward. Coun. Julian Morse said people have to live their lives and he does not believe the business of city government is suffering with only five councillors voting on important issues.

"That would be a question to maybe look at - the productivity of councillors over time and whether it's suffering over the past few weeks," Morse said. "Summer is a time when people go on vacation. It happens. I missed one meeting because of a vacation I took this summer. It was the first meeting I've missed since I started so I'm pretty happy with my attendance record right now."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.