Northwest Territories Power Corporation gets its 1st northern president

Cory Strang started with Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) as a summer student in 1998. 

Last month, he was named president and CEO of the company. 

"I didn't really think I would still be here, but I love the North and the company's been really good to me," he told Loren McGinnis, host of CBC North's The Trailbreaker.

Strang, who is Métis, is the first northern president of the power corporation, a subsidiary of NT Hydro, which is owned by the government of the Northwest Territories. 

Born in Hay River, Strang earned a degree in Commerce at the University of Alberta before coming back North. He was first appointed acting president and CEO back in May. 

"I don't have to bring a learning curve," he said. "I know what the challenges are and I know what we can offer as a company."

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about your vision. 

The government of the Northwest Territories is really focused on climate change. It's really focused on reducing our carbon footprint, reducing the amount of diesel that we need to bring into the North, which is a challenge because we know it's -40 in the winter time and there's not a lot of sun for renewables. We're … also working with Infrastructure Canada on sourcing funding to improve that system and make it more resilient, but also trying to keep that affordability for our customers, because renewable generation, it's not cheap. It's expensive, and we have to make sure that we can keep the lights on when it's -45.  

There's a federal mandate to get to net zero … and the territory has its own goals around carbon neutrality. What's the vision at the power company and how to get there?

Most of our generation is through hydro … but we use about 20 million litres of fuel a year, but that's still 20 million litres of fuel that need to be brought into our communities, so we're looking at different types of generation to bridge that, more liquid natural gas, which we're currently using, up in Inuvik. We are looking at a wind turbine/battery in Inuvik as well. And also working with Indigenous governments and partnerships so they can increase some of their own solar or wind generation into the community. We're really exploring all the aspects of it to try to reduce our carbon footprint.

Did you say 20 million litres of diesel? Does that keep you up at night? 

[Carbon emissions are] a big issue. You see what happened this year up and down the Mackenzie Valley, Mackenzie River … look at even in southern B.C., all the challenges there such as atmospheric rivers, which I've never heard of before, and that's disrupting our supply chain. We're seeing larger impacts on utilities across Canada, seeing more of these one-in-100 year storms, although not having it happening once every 100 years: they seem to be happening once every two years now. Utilities across the country are trying to examine what climate change is doing for their operations and trying to adapt at the same time to make sure that we can keep the lights on, so to speak, while people are using electricity more as a tool to reduce the number of petroleum products that they're using. 

What are your goals and how do you see the situation now in terms of the reliability and resilience of our power system?