Deninu K'ue/Fort Resolution
The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission has filed five charges against the North West Company, alleging Fort Resolution's Northern store failed to provide training, instruction and information to workers doing repairs on a site that hosted asbestos and mould; failing to ensure supervisors had knowledge of how to handle these substances and what protective gear must be worn; and having workplace procedures in place to safely handle these hazardous substances, among other charges.
The matter was set to have its first court date in Fort Resolution last Thursday.
– Tim Edwards
Power rates hiked two per cent
NWT
Power rates went up an average of two per cent on June 1, says the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
That rate increase is a result of a decision at the NWT Public Utilities Board on the power corp's general rate application for 2016 until 2019. Consumers using approximately 1,000 kilowatt hours monthly in the winter will see their bills bumped by anywhere between four and seven dollars per month.
NTPC president and CEO Jay Grewal said the two year time frame for completing the rate decision "should reassure customers that decisions about electricity rates are carefully considered to ensure that rates are kept as low as possible," a May 31 news release states.
The general rate application for 2016 to 2019 was submitted in June of 2016.
The power corporation is working on a strategy to control long term costs and implement new tech, the news release states.
– Avery Zingel
Man pleads guilty to gun charges
Somba K'e/Yellowknife
A Yellowknife man who was arrested last year after a traffic stop yielded restricted guns pleaded guilty to a number of firearm-related offences in NWT Supreme Court last week.
Michael Taylor, 28, pleaded guilty May 28 to one count of transporting restricted firearms without proper storage, one count of possessing a weapon obtained by commission of an offence and one count of possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition.
It's alleged that in February 2017, five handguns were located in the Honda Civic that Taylor and another passenger were driving in after they were pulled over near the hamlet of Enterprise. In March 2017, News/North reported the police seizure included three handguns reported stolen from a Range Lake area just hours before the stop. At the time, RCMP Const. Matt Halstead said the guns were not loaded, but that ammunition found in the vehicle was readily available.
Taylor is due back in court for a facts and sentencing hearing on June 26.
– Brendan Burke
Road Safety Week nabs four
Hay River
The GNWT partnered with the RCMP from May 15 to May 21 to support National Road Safety Week, an annual awareness campaign organized by the Canada Safety Council.
The GNWT and the RCMP conducted check stops and stopped 2,056 non-commercial and 300 commercial vehicles.
"With only four impaired charges this year, we are down from the 11 last year and from the five-year average of five per year. That is encouraging," said Supt. Amanda Jones in a May 25 news release.
– Paul Bickford