Norman Wells mayor wants five-year plan to secure town’s future

The Mayor of Norman Wells wants the territorial government to sit down with community leaders and establish a five-year plan to help the town stay afloat.

If the summer barge season remains compromised, Frank Pope worries who will pay to keep the town’s supply chain going by air.

“The government is absent,” Pope told Cabin Radio.

“They haven’t talked to us very much. They don’t talk to us. That’s our problem. Nobody is talking to us.”

The town called a state of emergency in October last year after fuel had to be delivered by air following the cancellation of barge resupply over low water in the Mackenzie River.

The cost of flying in fuel led to a spike in prices. Gas costs reached $5 per litre and some residents said the cost of home heating threatened to make basic necessities unaffordable.

Last week, the town declared a state of emergency for a second time, saying there had been “no response or at best a piecemeal response” from the NWT government since it stepped in to subsidize some fuel costs.

So far, it’s not clear that water levels on the Mackenzie River have improved enough to support a barge season this coming summer. The GNWT department responsible for monitoring those water levels declined an interview about the situation this month, saying it was too soon to tell. The brief winter road season is currently being used to make as many resupply trips as possible.

Pope says a dialogue with the GNWT is needed on multiple fronts: how climate change is affecting Norman Wells alongside the impending closure of Imperial Oil’s Norman Wells oil field, which is expected to shut down in the next five to 10 years – if not sooner – and remains the town’s major employer, only fuel supplier and source of power.

“We’ve been trying to get the Government of Northwest Territories’ attention to come and work with us to address the many, many situations we have run into over the last few years,” Pope told Cabin Radio, adding that Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely is expected to raise the issue in the Legislative Assembly on February 5.

“The lack of an all-season road, the lack of barge services, the fear that the winter road will not be long enough this year to bring all the materials in because it’s so warm. Global warming is just so, so badly affecting our community,” said Pope.

“There’s so many things happening here and the GNWT are not coming down, sitting on the table and discussing them with us.”

The territorial government’s Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has been approached for comment.

Pope acknowledged the territorial subsidy to offset some fuel costs and the GNWT’s donation of $150,000 to Norman Wells’ food bank, saying they were a “very big help.” Despite that, he said the GNWT has not indicated whether that kind of support will continue and for how long.

Sahtu leaders have been pushing for action from federal and NWT ministers for some time. In December, McNeely invited representatives from Food Banks Canada and Nutrition North for a meeting in Yellowknife to find solutions to the region’s food-related challenges.

The town forgave residents’ utility bills for the months of October to December, which the municipality said totalled a little over $250,000 in support.

“The latest kick was of course the Imperial Oil situation,” Pope said.

Imperial spent the fall of last year warning its facility could shut down early after multiple environmental assessments involving its operations were triggered. At the moment, the facility appears likely to continue operating at least for the immediate future.

“That’s a very, very serious situation for our town,” said Pope.

“If we were to lose Imperial Oil, if we were to lose Enbridge, there’s $5-6 million in taxes that we would lose to run our community.

“But nobody’s talking to us.”