Energy Strategies - Nunavut

Ministry of Energy

Energy Secretariat

Minister

The Honourable Lorne Kusugak

Documents

Objectives

Ikummatit includes four objectives that guide the territory’s actions on energy. These objectives, in turn, correspond to common themes found throughout Canada’s other provincial and territorial energy strategies.

• Improve the security of the energy system by reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, diversifying energy supply to include clean, alternative energy and domestic energy sources
• Manage the cost of energy-based services such as transportation, heating, hot water, lighting, and cooking, by reducing the cost of providing energy and improving the efficiency of its use
• Reduce the impact on the environment by reducing energy-related emissions which contribute to pollution and climate change
• Provide business and employment opportunities as the Territory increases energy efficiency and uses renewable and domestic energy sources

Nunavut Overview

Released in 2007, Ikummatitt: The Government of Nunavut Energy Strategy is primarily concerned with energy efficiency and resource development. Despite its potential resource wealth, the territory is currently dependent on imported energy and, as a consequence, the strategy addresses both the need to use energy more efficiently and the diversification of Nunavut’s energy sources (including the refurbishment of existing diesel generators) and the creation of the territory’s first hydroelectric plant in 2012 (though the plant is more likely to be completed around 2015). Efficiency measures include building retrofits, an energy-efficiency target of a 20 per cent reduction in energy consumption for The Department of Community and Government Services’ buildings and education measures designed to educate the public on energy use. In nearly all these efficiency measures, the need to address the specific climatic restrictions of an arctic territory are noted. Pilot projects include efforts to demonstrate “the feasibility and economics of solar water heating and solar walls in an arctic environment” and a small-scale energy-from-waste project based on the results of a feasibility study.

Nunuvat is the only province or territory to include a section on developing its uranium resources. Ikummatitt calls for negotiating a devolution agreement with the Government of Canada to ensure the territory manages its own mining and energy resources and using development partnership agreements to encourage development of the mining industry.

Concurrent with the release of IKUMMATIIT, the Government of Nunavut also released a discussion paper (473 KB PDF) that addressed many of the same issues seen in the energy strategy document, particularly the territory’s reliance on fossil fuels and the potential savings from energy efficiency.

Major Energy Players

Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC)

Timeline