Paulatuk, N.W.T., calls itself the south wind capital of the Arctic.
People in the community have long harnessed the power of its strong, southerly winds: it powered boats before engines were common, formed snowdrifts that could be read for directions on the land, and is used to dry meat in preparation for storage.
And now, the hamlet wants to turn that wind into electricity too.
It’s part of the community’s ambitious goal of one day becoming carbon neutral. But everyone – from residents to those leading the project – agree making sure homes don’t waste that energy is a critical part of the target.
“The winds are what’s going to make the turbines work but the wind is also what makes our units, our homes, cold,” said Lily-Ann Green. She’s a mother, a resident, and a member of the Paulatuk Energy Working Group.
Green said many people in Paulatuk don’t have proper weather stripping on their doors and windows. Sunlight streams through the cracks in the summer, she said.
“And through the winter months, when it’s windy, then yes a lot of people, a lot of us, have to put a blanket up on the doorway … we’re trying to keep our units as warm as we can, with whatever we’ve got, and the same thing goes for the windows too.”
Kourtney and Stacy Wolkie are raising their family in a three-bedroom Housing N.W.T. unit. They’ve been waiting years to have missing cupboard doors replaced, door handles installed, and window latches fixed.
Needing to seal their drafty front door shut with silicone from October to May every year is another challenge they face. It keeps the cold air out in the winter months, but they say it’s far from an ideal solution.
“If by accident there’s like a fire in here, how are we going to escape from our house? Because all the windows are blocked, our front door is blocked, and the only way we can get out is through the back door and that’s a long way to leave,” said Stacy Wolkie.
According to a 2024 N.W.T. Bureau of Statistics report, nearly half the homes in Paulatuk are considered to have a core need – meaning they are not considered suitable, adequate or affordable for those living in it. Paulatuk is the community in the N.W.T. with the second-highest percentage of homes that have a core need.
Paulatuk’s vision for a renewable energy project includes one or more wind turbines, solar panels, and a battery storage system. Green is supportive of the project, and hopes it’ll make the future better for her grandchildren.
But without addressing problems with peoples’ houses, Green questions the point of generating clean electricity. And that’s something the working group’s newly-released community energy plan, called Sivulliit Energy, aims to address.
“I’m glad Lily brought it up. The idea of feeding natural energy to a wasteful, inefficient home? No good,” said Raymond Ruben, Paulatuk’s mayor and the chair of the working group, during a community energy systems course in Paulatuk at the start of the month.
“We want to help our local people have better homes, more efficient homes. We’re not going to feed and waste energy on something that’s inefficient.”
When presenting the energy plan at the course, Grace Nakimayak, the working group’s clean energy co-ordinator, described a section in the plan about housing and energy efficiency as one of its biggest parts.
“Our homes are dated, seasonal shifting is causing air drafts,” the plan reads. “Some homes are struggling with moisture, multi-generational living, mould, over-crowding. These all greatly impact the comfort and longevity of a home, but most importantly the health and safety of its [residents].
Few people own their own homes, the plan said, and most dwellings are owned and maintained by Housing N.W.T.
Nakimayak said the working group is doing a housing research project with the National Research Council and Housing N.W.T. that will install devices in Paulatuk homes to gather information about how fuel and electricity is used.
She said the devices will be installed in five or six homes in the early spring. The plan is to collect data for two years, said Nakimayak, and the hope is to expand to more homes, if the project is able to secure more funding.
According to the clean energy plan, that information will be used to make recommendations to the N.W.T. government.
Nakimayak said the working group is also organizing a housing and energy efficiency course to take place in the spring. She said it’ll cover small things people can do to winterize their homes and to reduce their power and heating demands without interrupting how comfortable the space is.
“We’ll be collaborating and having conversations on how … future builds could be more energy efficient, more culturally appropriate, more appropriate for the climates,” she said.
Green said she’s looking forward to the course in the spring.
“If people were given the tools, the material, and being taught anything that can help them with lowering the cost of their power bills any month. I’m all for that. I’m excited for that to happen.”
