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Low water levels on Athabasca River spark concern Communities downstream from Albertas oilsands want industrial water withdrawal stopped during unseasonal lows on the Athabasca River. See page 6. GNWT funds put the voice of Denendeh back on the air CKLB Radio was back on the air Monday with lan- guage programming thanks to 400000 in new annual core funding from the GNWT. See page 23. Fire training preps NWT crew leaders for the season Fire crew leaders from across the NWT met in Fort Smith last week for training on deal- ing with fast-paced hazard- ous wildre scenarios. See page 15. MLAs wonder if GNWT asking right questions on fracking Some MLAs are calling for a plebiscite to determine how the public feels about allow- ing hydraulic fracturing in the NWT. See page 8. V IS IT W W W .N O R J.C A A national award winning independent newspaper serving northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories since 1977 1.00 June 2 2015 Vol. 39 No. 5 Power vacuum opens as Hay River puts electricity contract up for bid By MEAGAN WOHLBERG A power vacuum in the town of Hay River has sparked a turf war between the communitys long-time electricity distributor and the NWT- owned power corporation. Hay River mayor and council an- nounced last Monday they would be issuingarequestforproposalsRFP forelectricitydistributionratherthan renewingtheircontractwithNorthland Utilities Ltd. NUL due to mount- ingconcernsabouttherisingcostsof powerinthecommunitywhereresi- dentspayalmost15centsperkilowatt hour more than neighbouring com- munities in the South Slave. NUL an ATCO company has dis- tributed NTPC power in Hay River since 1951 and also delivers to cus- tomers in Yellowknife Ndilo En- terprise Kakisa Fort Providence Trout Lake and Wekweeti. Last De- cember Hay River Mayor Andrew Cassidyrevealedthe townwouldnot be renewing the franchise agree- ment with the company. Last week the Northwest Territo- ries Power Corp. NTPC conrmed theyd be taking the bait and putting inaproposalfortheHayRiverutility franchisewiththesupportofcabinet. NTPC pulled together a paper to lay out why they were recom- mending to proceed with putting in a bid Miltenberger said. There were in our minds clear savings the NWT while thrusting millions in expenses onto taxpayers. NULs vice president of Northern development Doug Tenney said the companys assets in Hay River - es- timated by the GNWT to cost 12 million - are not for sale and that the administrative functions the company provides stretch beyond that adding up costs for taxpay- ers should NTPC win the contract. Therehavebeenstatementsmade that NUL is nothing more than a middleman that we buy power from NTPCandturnaroundandpassthat on to customers and I think if you take a look at what the electricity business really is theres a num- ber of functions to get service to a customer he said. Theres a num- ber of administrative and general functions things like accounting billing human resources that are all required regardless who serves you. Those functions arent going to go away. See NUL on page 2. All were talking about is bidding on a public process for the franchise in Hay River. The issue of pushed out is they have to be com- petitive. If they want to win this they can do that.Theyjusthavetoputinthebestpackage. Minister Michael Miltenberger According to Michael Milten- berger the minister responsible for NTPC cabinet is very con- fident that NTPC will be able to achieve greater cost savings for ratepayers in Hay River where residents are currently paying NUL 0.34kWh for their hydro while those in Fort Smith pay the Power Corp. 0.21. that we think could be found that would lower the cost of power in Hay River. Were not for sale NUL Within hours of councils deci- sion NUL launched a cross-terri- tory advertising campaign accusing the NWT government of attempt- ing to push private business out of PhotoDaliCarmichael EN ROUTE TO RECONCILIATION National commission on residential schools ends. See page 21. Julie Lys chair of the Fort Smith District Education Authority moves Phoenix program graduate Tim Byes tassel from right to left signalling his achievement in receiving his high school diploma. The oil-eld worker from Fort Chipewyan decided to go back to school so he would never get passed over on another opportunity in the industry again. For more photos of Fort Smiths graduating class head to pages 12 13.