SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Coun. Niels Konge says if the city and territory want to solve power production problems they should consider building a small nuclear reactor.
While answering questions during last week's public forum - run by the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce at Northern United Place - the contractor said building a miniature nuclear reactor would go along way toward curbing the high cost of living and doing business in the city. On Monday, Konge said solutions currently being considered aren't big enough.
"Everybody talks about cost of living and we look at all this chicken scratch ... that isn't going to make a big difference," he said. "I've done some research, I even pitched it last time we had an election.
Since then we've seen the cost of power go from 28 (cents) to almost 40 cents a kilowatt hour. If we're really going to tackle the cost of living I believe we need to look at everything."
Konge said people cringe at the thought of nuclear power - with images of Chernobyl and Fukushima in mind - but tiny nuclear plants are already in operation across the globe.
He said a building the size of a sea can could be used to house a soft-ball sized low-grade uranium core which could easily power the city and would pay for itself in 20 years.
"It's about 5 cents a kilowatt hour," he said. "Alaska has two of these things they're trying out right now. And eastern Europe, there's several. There's some pretty big names out there making them, like Toshiba and Hitachi."
Councillor candidate Jugjit More-Curran has been out of the city since Oct. 5 on work duties and will miss all of the scheduled municipal candidate debates. More-Curran - the interim chief operating officer for ADK (Acho Dene Koe) Holdings, a Fort Liard-based company - said she wasn't able to get out of a trip to Fort Liard, where she's finishing up a contract with a long-term aboriginal client and won't be back in Yellowknife until Oct. 15.
Asked if she thought missing the public forums would hurt her campaign, More-Curran said she certainly would have preferred to have attended.
"I really didn't want to be out of town for a couple of weeks during a campaign," she said.
She said when she realized she was going to miss the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce forum last Friday, the forum hosted by the seniors' society that was scheduled to take place last night and the Alternatives North forum set for tonight, she organized her own public meet-and-greet Oct. 3.
She said the session was well attended and she's also been out door knocking as well.
"I was able to talk to and meet about 150 people," she said of the meet-and-greet.
More-Curran said she thinks her support base is broad and voters are most interested in what she'll do about the cost of living and that she isn't going to support a bid on the 2023 Canada Winter Games.
Candidates get creative with signs
At least three city candidates have created their own campaign signs, in lieu of having them professionally designed.
Mark Bogan has painted "Vote Mark Bogan for council" on the side of his green pickup truck, Shauna Morgan and her group of volunteers have posted seven homemade signs across the city and Beaton MacKenzie has multiple homemade signs posted around town. MacKenzie said he's Scottish, and frugality runs in his blood. He's spent around $100 to make his five signs, he said, and he's enlisted a friend to help him with the printing. He nailed the wood together and did the stencil work in his garage, he said.
MacKenzie said last week he held off mounting his signs in order to let the wind die down. He said waiting worked in his favour because it prompted people to ask about his campaign.
"People were asking me when I was going to put up signs," said MacKenzie.
In an e-mail, Morgan wrote that in addition to her signs, she's also handing out bandanas to be hung around the necks of pets.
"There has been incredible demand for this fun accessory," she wrote.
Meanwhile, Dane Mason's sign shows him with his ear to a person with a hole for a head, meaning curious folks who pass by can stick their own head into the opening, becoming part of the sign.
Niels Konge's sign simply states: 'Like me so far? Re-elect Niels Konge.'
