Aging infrastructure partly to blame for increased Nunavut power outages Qulliq Energy CEO says

The CEO of the Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC) says aging infrastructure is partly to blame for a recent increase in power outages in Nunavut. But Ernest Douglas says the company is also working to fix the problem.

QEC has at least 30 capital projects worth around $86 million planned for 2025, Douglas said.

It awarded contracts for new power stations in Cambridge Bay, Gjoa Haven and Igloolik in late 2024, and Douglas said it hopes to award a contract for Kugluktuk early this year.

Those plants should be online in 2028 or 2029, he said.

"There's a lot of aging infrastructure, and we're really working on upgrading a lot of that," Douglas said.

"We need to continue to lobby the government, both Nunavut and federal government, for more access to capital for this."

CBC News counted more than 90 outages between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, which were reported on the company's feed on X, formerly Twitter.

That's compared to around 60 outages in the same period in 2023.

Iqaluit alone counted more than 15 outages during the last four months of 2024 compared to just four during the same period in 2023.  

Some of the Iqaluit outages relate to bringing a new generator online, Douglas said.

But elsewhere, the problem was with a lack of new equipment. More than 10 power plants in the territory are beyond their useful life.

"It requires an extensive amount of maintenance," said Douglas.

"I hate to make excuses but there's a lot of challenges involved. We have a tough procurement regime where logistically it's difficult to get these things to Nunavut."

The company has been playing catch-up since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Douglas said, calling the period "a dead spot."

He said a break in building new generators and new power plants "really set us back."

In addition, he said, Nunavut faces a shortage of skilled workers willing to fly all over the territory to make repairs and do maintenance work on those plants.

Youth should train to work in their communities, retired line worker says

A line worker in Rankin Inlet, who's been retired for more than 10 years, became a local hero on Christmas Day after springing into action to help a team restore power to that community.

Albert Netser said he called the mayor to arrange a get-together and ended up being recruited onto the repair crew.

He started work around 2 p.m. and didn't get finished until nearly 12 hours later.

"We would fix one part of the town and go try to turn it on and sometimes it will be on for a while, then sometimes it would shut off," he said.

Netser never did get to eat his Christmas dinner with his family, but he said one person offered beer and Gatorade to the crew.

"The whole town was pitching in to help us out," Netser said.  "'We saw sparks here, and we saw sparks there. Can you guys check it out?' It was a whole community event at the end."

Douglas said the territory is competing for workers with many companies in southern Canada who offer attractive benefits and opportunities to fly in and out of the regions they serve. 

"We don't offer that yet," he said of the ability to rotate workers in and out of the territory. But, Douglas said, the corporation is looking at things that might help including job sharing and wages.

But Netser urged young people in Nunavut to get an education so that they can serve their own communities. 

"It was all local people that got the power back on here in Rankin Inlet," he said.

"And I believe that our people here are well able, with just a little bit of education and a whole lot of will, to achieve what they want to achieve."

He said the short training period away from home offers the chance to work at home later on.

Netser also said he had fun troubleshooting the power system.

"There's just that feeling you got the power back on in everybody's house, and everybody's heating up now. I really enjoyed that."