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As Canada's most northern town, Inuvik has an Arctic climate with limited accessibility. Given the remoteness and low population density, things are expensive. Despite this, Inuvik has a strong, tight-nit community. The current method for energy production is entirely based on expensive and unreliable diesel and liquid natural gas shipments coming from Southern Canada. With the pandemic, LNG and Diesel imports and the local economy as a whole have been affected.
Photo-1. Courtesy of Kristian Binder. Inuvik. October 31,2019. Above & Beyond
Inuvik relies on the outside world for their energy because of the lack of local infrastructure supporting renewable, self-sufficient energy sources. This is because of the harsh climate, high capital costs, and political challenges associated with the location. This reliance on the outside world results in high costs to consumers, uncertainty in shipment timings, and unreliable power generation leading to frequent power outages.
Supply chains have been all over the place, given the COVID-19 pandemic. People are unable to be flown in, and supply shipments have been staggered and unreliable. It is clear that Inuvik can no longer rely on southern Canada to meet its needs.
The key element of the problem is the dependence on southern Canada. If communities like Inuvik are to be sustainable in the long term, they must become self-sufficient and start sourcing as much of their energy as possible locally.
The current infrastructure is unreliable. Minor power outages are a daily norm, and moderate power outages happen almost weekly. As dependence on energy grows in society, power outages arising from the inherent nature of energy generation via natural gas and diesel are a hinderance to the long-term growth of the community.
Finally, there exists a high cost that the people of Inuvik and the surrounding communities must pay to receive their much needed power. This presents challenges in the standard of living, quality of life, and economic prosperity of the people of Inuvik.
The main stakeholder for this issue is the community of Inuvik. Although diverse, the community has a strong cohesion, and the unreliability and high cost of power is something that affects all. An improved power system would be popular and would genuinely improve the quality of the lives of the residents. Residents of the Northwest Territories pay the highest power rates in the country, at an average of 38.7cents/kWh, or about $387 a month in comparison to Ontario's $125 a month.
Figure 1- shows the Electricity Bill Comparison between Inuvik and other North American cities. North West Territories Energy Report. May 2011. Northwest Territories
