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INUVIK
If the NWT Public Utilities Board accepts the general rate application of seven per cent for each of the next three years – starting April 1 – and five per cent for the fourth year, one Inuvik resident thinks community members will reach a breaking point, pack up and get out.

The application was filed March 23 and is the first for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation in five years.

Past Inuvik mayor Derek Lindsay, also treasurer of the Inuvik Chamber of Commerce and manager of the town's Royal Canadian Legion branch, said this rate application will have a spiderweb effect, with probable tax increases from the town to offset a power rate surge for higher utility costs.

"It'll just be a gong show and we can't afford it. The way the economic situation is here in Inuvik, no one can afford any seven per cent increase. That's ridiculous," said Lindsay.

"Mark my words, you'll see houses go on the market if this is approved April 1 ... People will start to move out of this community again. This'll be just like back in the early (1980s) when oil companies pulled out; this town will become a ghost town," said Lindsay.

Ann Kasook, executive director of the Inuvik Transition House, said the non-profit organization runs 24 hours a day – always open in case someone needs to seek refuge.

"It's just a big question mark for me as to how are we going to make ends meet ... we're expected to be open 24-7 so we're constantly using power and heating," she said.

The home, which gets most of its funding from the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority, saw 41 women and 41 children over the past year.

This rate increase would have been even higher, but the GNWT is subsidizing the corporation with $33.8 million over three years to allow for the rate increase to be spread out. Michael Miltenberger, minister responsible for the corporation, said the five-year pause between rate reviews is part of the problem.

"If we adjusted rates each year it wouldn't be that much of a shock," Miltenberger said. "After a five-year pause, we have to make up all that ground we've lost. Right now the costs are far outstripping the revenues."

The NTPC is looking to alternative sources of energy to improve future costs with diesel not being a long-term choice overall.

"We need to explore alternative energy sources. We need to review how we buy fuel, how we run the operation," said Miltenberger.

Miltenberger also said the corporation has cut nine positions.

Mayor Denny Rodgers echoed Lindsay's expectation of the potential power rate increase affecting more than the utility bill.

"It also affects the cost of goods and services – businesses pass that on, the cost of rent, cost of everything in the community," said Rodgers. "It always frustrates me when you look at the natural resources we have ... We've got trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in our region and we're paying exorbitant amounts for power."

Rodgers said the NTPC switch diesel to natural gas in the town – due to the Ihkil gas field's impending depletion in less than two years – is costing the corporation $5 million a year. He said he would rather see these additional costs being invested into the development of a long-term natural gas supply.

"Given the situation that Inuvik is in, what you'd like to see is a little more vision rather than say, 'The answer is the costs are going up – we have to burn diesel so we're going to increase rates for everyone,'" he said.

Rodgers said the town is currently looking at two years minimum before infrastructure could be in place to get natural gas flowing from another source in the Delta. For the short term, the community will pay "a lot more for heat."

"Unless there's a miracle or someone steps up with a subsidy, it's a double whammy for us. We're going to pay more for electricity and more for heat. That's tough," he said.

Intervenors have until today to submit their comments.

The public is encouraged to voice their opinions by writing letters, e-mails, or by sending a community representative to speak at the general rate application hearing, a date for which will be announced soon.

– with files from Lyndsay Herman

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