The territorial government has announced that it will chip in $1.9-million to convert the utilidor from a system in which superheated water from NWT Power is circulated through the lines, to one where only enough hot water is pumped through to keep the sewage and water pipes inside from freezing. Heating stations will also be installed at intervals along the line as part of the work.

The government had already allocated $900,000 to the project, money set aside when the utilidor was downloaded to it by the federal government, and moved the project's priority up so it could provide the rest of the money starting this year. The remaining $450,000 will come from the Inuvik Utilities Planning Committee.

The current system is very expensive to operate and has few customers (mostly government buildings) as most homes and businesses have switched to oil-fired boilers. The high-temp system is so inefficient that the GNWT estimates it will make back its investment in three years.

Buildings still on the high-temp loop, which include the hospital and both schools as well as a number of downtown buildings occupied by government departments, will have to switch over to boilers and that cost will be borne by individual departments.

"It's good news for Inuvik, that's for sure," said MLA Floyd Roland, who added that negotiations to turn the entire system over to the town will begin this year.

The project will create jobs, Roland said, although he could not estimate how many.

"The important thing is it will create work, keeping jobs in Inuvik."

Inuvik Mayor George Roach said there are only a handful of residential customers still on the high-temp loop and most of them are considering changing over -- customers saw rates jump 124 per cent in July 1997 because there are so few people on the system that the remaining customers had to pay more to keep the system operating.

He said the negotiations to turn over the utilidor to the municipality have been going on for the past 20 years, and the town is one of the few that does not own is own utilities system.

Tenders for the work will be issued shortly.