Lamps installed only by request says company spokeswoman

Iqaluit city council got its wires crossed when it complained it has no say in where and when Qulliq Energy installs streetlights, says a spokeswoman for the power corporation.

Late last month, councillors were upset after being told that QEC was installing new streetlights in Iqaluit, then billing the city for the cost of the electricity without consulting the city.

But that's not how it works, said Meghan McRae of the QEC.

"[The city] would have to request that we put in streetlights," she said.

McRae said city staff recently requested more streetlights near the hospital. The request was made verbally and the city was told it must be done in writing.

"They've been made aware there's a process. They've done it before."

At a meeting last month of the finance committee of the whole, the city's finance director, John Hussey, said the city has no say where the power corporation installs new streetlights.

His comment prompted councillors to complain about too much light in the downtown core and not enough elsewhere.

Hussey said he was misinterpreted. When the city builds new subdivisions it sends the plans to the QEC, who install lights using their own materials and standards. He said his concern was the use of older, less energy-efficient types of lights.

The city spends nearly $190,000 annually to illuminate the capital. While city staff and elected officials were on the lookout for cost-saving devices at the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in Calgary this past weekend, McRae said QEC has some partial relief in the offing.

The utility has 18 light-emitting diode streetlights on order for a pilot project in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay. Each community will get six of the LED lamps which can run on half the electricity of standard sodium vapour lights.

That's welcome news to Hussey.

"That's a good thing," he said. "That helps us right there, knowing something like that."

The catch, McRae said, is that the manufacturer, Taiwan-based Leotek Electronics, hasn't tested the LED lights in conditions below -40 C.

"Nunavut Power is planning on implementing this pilot project, to see if these lights can truly withstand the extreme cold of the North, as well as the wind, snow and general storminess that we encounter up here," McRae said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

The utility plans to install LED streetlights near the causeway in Iqaluit, a major intersection in Rankin Inlet and around the high school in Cambridge Bay. McRae said the lights are coming on this year's sealift and should be installed by the fall.