Hydro dams for Nunavut?

Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean says Nunavut residents may have to accept the construction of hydro-electric power dams as a necessity for economic development, and to break Nunavut’s dependence on fossil fuels.

McLean praised the Nunavut government for entering into an agreement with the province of Manitoba to work on the idea of building electrical power lines running between the two jurisdictions.

He also said Nunavut should look into generating its own hydro-electric power, some of it for sale to Manitoba and the United States.

“Our dependency on fossil fuels is never going to go away and it’s a pollutant of the environment, and I know the minister wouldn’t say it on the radio, but somebody, some day, is going to have to make a tough decision and politicians are elected to make the hard and tough decisions about building a dam in Nunavut.

“I know it’s a scary word, dam, in Nunavut, but for self-sufficiency, and if we are building a power grid from Manitoba, why can’t we export power to the United States?”

The Nunavut Power Corporation is already beginning to look at the idea of hydro-electric power, including small-scale hydro projects in and around Iqaluit.