As electricity costs increase, the NWT government has announced a new, temporary subsidy designed to reduce those higher costs for some residents.
The territory said Tuesday that power rates have increased as the Public Utilities Board has approved final electricity rates, effective February 1, 2026.
Caroline Wawzonek, the minister of finance, said the new, short-term Cost of Living Subsidy will be applied to electricity bills for residents in communities where rates are expected to increase by more than 15 percent.
“This support ensures residents in the communities facing the greatest cost increases receive meaningful relief during a period of adjustment,” Wawzonek stated.
“Our goal is to help households and businesses manage these changes while maintaining a reliable and sustainable electricity system.”
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The subsidy will apply to communities that mainly rely on diesel or other fuel-based generation. Without the subsidy, the territory said residents in those communities would have experienced a 33-percent rate increase, while the subsidy will reduce that increase to eight percent.
The subsidy will also apply to South Slave communities served by the Taltson hydro system. The GNWT said residents in those communities would have faced a 62-percent power rate increase which will be reduced to a 14-percent increase with the subsidy.
The subsidy is expected to automatically appear on customers’ bills and be in effect from February 1, 2026 to March 31, 2028.
The GNWT said it is also providing funding to Naka to ensure higher costs are not passed on to residents in the Naka Hydro served communities of Enterprise and Kátł’odeeche First Nation, which were “at risk of seeing material increases of their electricity bills.”
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The territory said residents in communities served by the Snare system, where the subsidy does not apply, are expected to see their power rates increase by eight percent.
That means residents in Yellowknife, Dettah and Behchokǫ̀ will not receive the subsidy.
The NWT Power Corporation had initially asked the Public Utilities Board for a power increase in 2024 citing low water and volatile fuel prices among other challenges.
On Tuesday, the GNWT said the increased rates recently approved by the Public Utilities Board are related to factors including wildfire impacts, system upgrades and the need to recover revenue not collected while the board reviewed the rate application.
The territory had previously planned to spend $48 million over four years to reduce expected power rate increases.
Last year, however, the Public Utilities Board said that planned subsidy could not go ahead. After cancelling its $48 million plan, CBC reported the GNWT was considering a subsidy program that would instead go directly to customers.
