Erin Fletcher
Northern News Services

Paulatuk (Apr 12/04) - It's time to turn the fridge lights out for Paulatuk's 40-year-old community freezer this summer.

The white-sided insulated building is the last of its kind in the Beaufort Delta and possibly the entire territory.

While other communities have shut their community freezers down, Paulatuk has clung onto theirs.

But now the GNWT Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development department said they won't fund the $17,500 it costs to keep it running from May to August. In exchange, they are offering a one-time option for community freezer users to get a free chest freezer.

"We feel the community freezer is the most beneficial way for this community," said Paulatuk mayor Keith Dodge.

"(RWED) is not taking into consideration the remoteness of the community. They don't understand how important the community freezer is," he explained. "People don't hunt for one week. They're hunting for next winter."

Dodge said buying chest freezers won't cut it.

Chest freezers won't have enough room, will eat up too much electricity for private home owners and take too long to come by barge this season, Dodge said.

The geese hunt starts in May. The barge doesn't come until August.

"What happens if someone gets three whales, leave one out there? I'd like RWED to reconsider their offer," said Dodge.

Ninety per cent of the community -- about 30 families -- use the freezer, Dodge said.

Community freezers are inefficient and costly, said Ron Morrison, RWED regional superintendent for the Beaufort Delta.

"They were really starting to deteriorate," said Morrison.

Most of the more than 30 community freezers were built and paid for by the federal government in the 1960s. Since the 1970s RWED has been monitoring the program. In 1999 they began phasing them out in the Beaufort Delta.

Sachs Harbour and Tsiigehtchic have already switched their community freezers off and opted for the free chest freezers.

Fort McPherson and Aklavik either didn't have a freezer or weren't using it. Tuktoyaktuk has one dug into the permafrost that costs nothing to keep cold. Holman manages its freezer differently.

Unless Paulatuk is prepared to cover the cost under the hamlet, the freezer will be shut down and sold off this year, Morrison said.

"We will not operate that freezer and we highly recommend that they don't," Morrison said.

Dodge said the hamlet couldn't afford to keep the freezer going without additional funding.

The money not being used to fund freezers will be used to enhance staffing and programs throughout the region, said Morrison.

Sachs Harbour's community freezer closed about two years ago.

The transition wasn't a difficult one, said Sachs Harbour mayor Andy Carpenter Sr. Not a lot of people were using the community freezer and it was costing too much to keep open.

"I think everybody is happy," he said.

About 30 freezers of various sizes were barged into the community over a two-year period.