Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 24/01) - Better-known for his left-wing politics and alternative energy business, Dennis Bevington is both an unlikely and an obvious candidate to head up the government's new energy secretariat.

Dennis Bevington: Overseeing the development of the North's first energy strategy.

The former mayor of Fort Smith entered politics by leading a successful protest against a proposal to dam the Slave River. The government is now gung-ho on the hydroelectric potential of the NWT's wild rivers.

Bevington says most of his energy experience, as a consultant and alternative energy systems supplier, is community-based. His focus now is territorial.

Bevington is charged with delivering a draft energy strategy in the next 10 months. During the second year of his two-year appointment, he and his small staff will develop a plan for meeting the goals and objectives outlined in the strategy.

"There are a lot of options for the NWT," he says. "We're a significant land mass with a lot of opportunities for non-renewable and renewable energy development."

The objective of the strategy is to co-ordinate energy initiatives being undertaken in a number of government departments and agencies.

The government's agenda has so far focused mostly on mainstream energy sources: gas development, hydroelectric power and pipelines. Bevington says he believes alternate energy sources are going to play an increasingly important role in the North.

"I think alternatives are going to come on very strong here," Bevington says. "There's new technology being developed -- fuel cells, micro-turbines, heat pumps -- that can offer answers to questions facing us."

The North's role in the national effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions will be incorporated into the strategy.

The territorial government is in an awkward position where greenhouse gases are concerned. While the North feels the effects of climate change more acutely than the rest of the country, the growth in industrial development is expected to increase emissions rather than reduce them.

Bevington acknowledged that the most contentious energy issue facing Northerners is the cost of energy -- a cost that he says, "inhibits business, drains individuals of resources they could put into improving their lives."