Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK
As the NWT Economic Opportunities Advisory Panel gets ready visit Inuvik on Monday, News/North looks at the economic needs and potential of the Beaufort Delta in the third installment of a six-part series.

Drivers of construction vehicles protested regulatory delays on the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway project last September. The highway is considered by many in the region to be vital to economic development. - NNSL file photo

What is really going to make a difference on whether or not the new territorial economic strategy is effective is whether or not the government is ready to look at making some big changes to its own policy, said Inuvik Mayor Floyd Roland, a former premier.

"The government needs to look at policies and be ready to change them," Roland said.

"Unless we start looking at the big picture, we'll be stuck in the same scenario."

For Roland, that means looking at energy options in a completely different way.

He said the power corporation is limited in what it can do because Inuvik is such a small client base. As a result, large-scale projects don't look good in feasibility plans.

Instead, Inuvik and the region should be able to turn natural gas and off-shore gas into power and the power corporation should be enabled to sell that power to southern markets that need it, he said asserting the arrangement would make the power corporation and the region money, while allowing for lower power rates for locals.

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben said part of the problem is that feasibility studies on such ideas, such as utilizing natural gas located near Tuk, are short-sighted and don't consider the hamlet's or the region's high potential for growth.

Power costs are something the GNWT has its eye on for the territory as a whole with a new Energy Plan planned for release this year.

"For me, I think that is one of the big pieces of the puzzle is the cost of energy," said Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay. "If we can really find a way to reduce the cost people are paying for energy here in the NWT, that would be a big step in the right direction."

Ramsay referred to off-shore drilling activity and other resource extraction ventures as economic opportunities that will be important to the region.

For Gruben, these potential developments mean training and, most importantly, the construction of an Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway needs to happen before development picks up in three to four years.

Roland said he sees opportunities nearer in the future than the large-scale oil and gas projects.

For instance, he would like to see research institutions which utilize ground stations in Inuvik to gather data from orbiting satellites but also be stationed in Inuvik.

One way he hopes to achieve this goal is through a winter conference for academics studying such Northern-relevant subjects as language, culture, environment, and climate change.

The conference would be comparable to the petroleum show the town hosts annually in June.

Tourism is identified by most parties as another high potential industry for the Beaufort Delta.

"I'm always saying, if oil and gas doesn't work out, there is always tourism," said Gruben.

"I mean, the Arctic Ocean is right there. It sells itself!"

Gruben said the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway would be highly important as will construction of a Mackenzie Valley highway, construction of hotels, establishment of RV parks, and overall service-industry improvement.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.