Keeping the lights on in Canada’s North

Source: John Grainger · UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN · | March 1, 2022

USask program offers a transformative opportunity through renewable energy for Indigenous people

Source: Children run along the boardwalk in the remote northern community of Kongiganak on Alaska’s Yukon Kuskokwim Delta where wind energy combined with a battery storage system provides up to 100 per cent of the community’s electric needs. (Photo: Amanda Byrd)

A unique program offered through the School of Environmental Sustainability (SENS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) aims to enhance the economic future for Canada’s northern communities.

Supported by a generous $250,000 donation from the Suncor Energy Foundation, the Removing Barriers to Energy Security in Indigenous Northern Communities program allows students to lead their home communities out of reliance on outdated and aging energy infrastructure while earning a master’s in energy security.

“We’re really excited to be working with the Suncor Energy Foundation,” says Dr. Greg Poelzer (PhD), the architect of the SENS program. “There’s no other university in Canada that is working with remote Indigenous communities directly and in building capacity for the energy transition in expanding the economic value proposition that renewable energy investments can make.

“It was a complete alignment of values with the Suncor Energy Foundation of where we want to see a future Canada and a complete alignment of values of where we want to see the world going in terms of global energy transition,” says Poelzer, a Fulbright scholar who is the co-lead on the Fulbright Arctic Initiative.

Poelzer says urban residents often don’t think of the issues surrounding energy sustainability that often face rural and Northern communities across Canada.

“Right now, with the energy transition, we have the best opportunity in over 100 years to try to build economic reconciliation. This will bridge and a build a stronger Canada.”

An important piece to this program is participating students don’t have to travel to Saskatoon to complete their studies as they are conducted online remotely and at times that are accessible for the student.