Residents of Kimmirut are once again enjoying power in the community after a severe outage lasting nearly four days resulted in a state of emergency as of Nov. 1.
Senior administrative officer (SAO) John Mabberi-Mudonyi said damage was limited during a period of mild temperatures in the community of close to 400 residents.
"I should have plans of maybe looking at what equipment is there, especially given that most of some of this equipment is very old," he said. "Some are over 30 years old... you really have to look at all the community. I don't think that Kimmirut was way up on the list, but this is a blessing in disguise and I think it brings us up a little bit higher in terms of priority in terms of getting new equipment in.
"As long as I've been in Kimmirut... we have had this occasional losses of power, and I think sometimes we think, 'OK, OK, there it goes again,' and an hour later it's back," Mabberi-Mudonyi added. "Sometimes when you get serious blizzards, we get those power outages. But the guys [at Qulliq Energy Corporation] have been good at fixing that. We have... local residents who work at the plant and they have been very effective at..taking care of [it].
"Now, obviously, as everybody knows, this was a major incident SA国际影视传媒 it was international [news]... there was a series of, I guess, mechanical failures and at the plant. I don't think that... the backup generator was ready to operate as well... but QEC guys know better than we do, and I'm sure they are working on fixing this situation."
During the Nov. 4 sitting of the legislative assembly, Kimmirut MLA David Joanasie, who also serves as minister of Community and Government Services (CGS) and declared the state of emergency, spoke about the need for better emergency preparedness in response to the recent power outage.
"On Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, the power supply in Kimmirut failed," said Joanasie. "While Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC) investigated the cause of the outage, local leaders took immediate measures to ensure residents had access to a warming centre at Qaqqalik School... given the nature of the outage and the uncertainty of the timeline for restoration of services, my department adopted a SA国际影视传媒渟tepped approach,SA国际影视传媒 which began with an immediate assessment of existing resources available in the community to help manage the impacts of the outage in the short term. Our immediate measures included engaging the municipality, activation of back up power sources on Government of Nunavut facilities and initiating an assessment of risks to critical infrastructure in the community.
"On Nov. 1, CGS provided interim power and restored heat to the municipal water treatment plant to ensure water was available at the warming centre and for fire protection purposes, Joanasie stated.
Other measures included securing commercial aircraft to transport repair crews and equipment, identifying vulnerable individuals requiring special care during the power outage, prioritization of freight to ensure medicine, dry goods and food for the warming centre were not delayed, deployment of emergency generators and equipment to protect GN and local housing assets, working with local contractors and authorities to ensure safe activation and deactivation of back-up power systems, and engaging with Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard to review options to address mid- to long-term power generation needs in the community.
Mabberi-Mudonyi offered praise for the response from Joanasie and his staff, describing the minister as "fully supportive."
John Main, the minister responsible for QEC, commented that "QEC is committed to investigating the causes of this outage and implementing necessary improvements to reduce the likelihood of future incidents. Enhancing our infrastructure's reliability and response to emergencies is a priority. We are committed to continuous system improvements that ensure all Nunavummiut can depend on a safe, stable power supply."