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Mackenzie Delta cut off Tuesday
Internet and data services down for nine hours after Yukon road crews accidentally cut a Northwestel cableNathalie Heiberg-Harrison Northern News Services Published Thursday, July 7, 2011
Inuvik, Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic and Tuktoyaktuk were all affected after the cut was made at 8:45 a.m. between Whitehorse and Carmacks, Yukon, on the Klondike Highway. A Northwestel crew arrived on the scene around 11 a.m. to excavate and repair the cable and partial services were restored by 3:30 p.m. Full service was back up by 6 p.m. Merven Gruben, mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, said the service outage was unacceptable. "It's just crazy that we have to rely on this type of system," he said. "They definitely have to start working on a plan B." On June 15 service was cut off for six hours after a similar incident occurred just one kilometre from where construction crews were based last Tuesday. "In the North this definitely shouldn't happen, because we're totally relying on this stuff," Gruben said, adding that Tuktoyaktuk, similar to the other communities that were affected, was left at a standstill. Anne Kennedy, director of communications for Northwestel, said crews repaired the damage as fast as possible and, in the meantime, the company did what it could to keep customers up to date. "We of course acknowledge there's generally frustration, but we really haven't seen much or heard much from customers in terms of real complaints about it," she said. "I think we were trying to do our best to make sure people were aware of what the situation was and that we were working on it." Aside from that, she said, the circumstances were beyond the company's control. Prior to the construction, Northwestel marked the ground with spray paint to illustrate where cables were buried and Kennedy said Northwestel will continue to do so. The company also sent a team to the site yesterday to assess the work and put together some recommendations for future construction. "That is a key concern of ours, to make sure this doesn't happen again," Kennedy said. Service was also cut off in the Yukon communities of Carmacks, Dawson City, Faro, Mayo, Pelly Crossing, Stewart Crossing and Eagle Plains.
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