Nunavut’s energy provider wants to recoup $30M in unpaid bills
QEC looking at load limiters on delinquent properties to get customers to pay up
Qulliq Energy Corp. is working to recoup $30 million in power bill arrears. (File photo)
Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. ET
Owed roughly $30 million in unpaid bills, Qulliq Energy Corp. is ready to dim the lights on customers who aren’t keeping up with their electricity payments.
Qulliq Energy Corp. president and CEO Ernest Douglas says the company can find ways to help Nunavummiut who have troubles paying their power bills. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
“If we don’t prudently manage our collections or our aged receivables, then it will ultimately drive higher rates for everybody,” Ernest Douglas, the company’s president and CEO, said in an interview Friday.
Nunavut’s energy provider plans to install load limiters on some properties — something QEC stopped doing about five years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Load limiters are small devices installed on the building’s meter. They limit the amount of electricity that goes into the building, in cases where large bills are owed and the resident hasn’t worked out a payment plan.
With the cap in place, customers are able to use their furnaces and fridges. But due to the limited power, other electric appliances can only be used one at a time, Douglas said.
Load limiters provide an alternative to shutting off the delinquent customers’ electricity in winters, when a complete energy shutoff could be life-threatening in Arctic temperatures.
“We’re aware just like anybody that in the winter months, electricity is not a commodity. It’s more of a necessity and it’s vital to the community’s well-being,” Douglas said.
He couldn’t estimate how many load limiters will be installed across the territory.
QEC is owned by the Government of Nunavut and operated as cost-recovery utility. That means it has to generate enough revenue to be self-sustaining.
It has about 14,500 commercial and residential customers across Nunavut. But growing debt from unpaid utility bills is putting financial “operating pressures” on QEC, so customers can expect more load limiters to be installed in coming months.
Of the $30 million owed to QEC, approximately 32 per cent or $9.6 million is owed by residential customers.
Another 33 per cent of that debt is owed by commercial customers, such as small businesses; and the remaining 35 per cent by non-profits and Arctic co-operatives, Douglas said, referring to organizations owned by their members.
He said much of the residential debt has accumulated over several years.
“We all know that the folks in Nunavut pay more for electricity than anywhere else in Canada,” Douglas said, adding the push to recoup the arrears is an attempt to limit any increases in power rates that affect all QEC customers.
“It’s expensive as it comes. It’s not easy to operate 25 independent microgrids or 25 independent communities,” he said.
The last time power rates went up was June 2025 when customers saw about a 9.5 per cent increase in the cost of electricity.
At the same time, service charges were doubled — for commercial customers, they jumped to $16 per kilowatt from $8; and for residential customers service charges rose to $36 from $18, although residential service charges are covered by the Nunavut Electricity Subsidy Program and customers aren’t billed for it.
Douglas says customers who are unable to pay their bills should contact QEC directly to discuss options. Possibilities include deferred payments or temporary smaller payments or “just anything that shows a commitment that they’re willing to continue to do their best,” he said.
“We’re not inhuman. We understand that people are going through tough times,” Douglas said.
Correction: This article has been updated from its originally published version to clarify that Ernest Douglas was referring to Arctic co-operatives — organizations that are owned by their members. It also deleted an incorrect reference to QEC debt owed by residents of subsidized housing.
Holy! How did they let this snowball into multimillions?
And almost 70% are businesses. Are they the same ones on the municipal tax payers list of shame?
QEC’s timing is sus
$30M in overdue accounts represents 19% of QEC’s annual power sales of $157M.
If this were any other business, these unpaid bills would start bankrupting the company anywhere north of 9% of total annual sales. 19% in unpaid bills is completely off the wall.
Never mind good to have stuff like switching to hydro or bringing on solar and wind like the rest of humanity is managing to do.
The fuel QEC burns is publicly subsidized. The power plants they operate are bought outright by taxpayers. The power they sell is also further subsidized for many customers. The money we pay for power up here is but a fraction of the total real cost.
The government is meeting people more than halfway here. Yet, it is still too much for many people and business. What will it be now, an “unpaid bill” power rider put on the bills for everyone else?
It almost seems for some people and groups, we need to give up all pretense that they are functioning adults and just pay their entire cost of power and be done with it. It might actually even out in terms of cost for staff time and power limiters. Lord knows QEC is not flush with spare workers nowadays.
This is a 100% critical necessary for life service people.
When people do not take their obligations seriously, I am convinced they do not realize that they actually jeopardize the functioning and future of their community.
I believe the $30M in overdue accounts is cumulative – over several years. If this was evenly distributed over six years, that would represent about 3% of annual revenue per year.
Nunavut: Where paying your bills is just a suggestion.
Also, where justice is only sometimes applied.
“We all know that the folks in Nunavut pay more for electricity than anywhere else in Canada,”
Incorrect. Because of subsidization in Nunavut, the highest residential electricity costs belong to NWT customers.
“He said much of the residential debt has accumulated over several years and is owed mostly by customers in subsidized housing.”
Don’t people in public housing only pay 6 cents per KWH? Only like 8% of what residential customers pay?
Scared of solar project influxes, payments always been an issue, timing is on point with plans to build many new power stations but just that plans only no money..just pipe dreams.
QEC putting a rush to collect because of the proposed hydro link to Manitoba will take away their business.
Maybe if they were open more than 3 days a month people could pay