Living Off-the-Grid in Northern Ontario

November 9, 2015 - In late July 2015 the CBC reported that a Pan Canadian Task Force to Reduce Use of Diesel Fuel in Remote Communities was established by Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. Ontario’s Ministry of Energy press release noted that throughout the country “there are nearly 300 off-grid communities with a total population of approximately 200,000 people.”  At first blush this number seemed to be very high, but how does this break down for Northern Ontario and where are these numbers coming from? The information was taken from a 2011 report by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRC) on the status of remote/off-grid communities in Canada.

The report defined off-grid communities as permanent or long-term (five years or more) settlements with at least 10 dwellings “not currently connected to the North-American electrical grid nor to the piped natural gas network.” The term “remote community” was also used interchangeably to describe this situation. The report found that Canada has 292 remote communities, representing a total of 194,281 people (based off of data from the 2006 Census). The overwhelming majority of these areas are Aboriginal communities, with 126,861 people (65 percent) living in 170 of these communities. Overall, British Columbia has the most off-grid or remote communities with 86, followed by Quebec with 44, and Ontario and the Northwest Territories weighing in at third with 38 each.

Ontario’s situation echoes the national trend; 14,236 people (67 percent) living in 25 of these 38 communities are Aboriginal. As part of Northern Policy Institute’s ongoing efforts to better “Know the North”, it is important that this situation is brought to light in order to understand how it affects people here in Northern Ontario.

This has been an ongoing issue for quite some time. In 1985, Sigma Engineering estimated that Ontario had 15,000 people living in forty-three remote communities. Just over 10 years later, NRC found that the number of off-grid locations in the province was the same but that the number of people living in them had nearly doubled to 29,296. The recent AANDC and NRC report suggested that the number of remote communities in Ontario has dropped, albeit slightly, but there is still a significant number of people living off-the-grid. The picture of the human impact is complicated by limitations with the National Household Survey, the successor to the long-form census, as it cannot be accurately determined whether the situation has improved or worsened because recent data is unavailable for 18 of the following communities:

Currently, Hydro One Remote Communities services 21 of these off-grid communities largely through diesel stations. According to a promotional video released in 2011, Hydro One transports 14-17 million litres of fuel each year to run generators in First Nations communities. This system presents considerable logistical challenges and is incredibly costly from both an economic and environmental perspective. University of Waterloo researchers suggested that the annual carbon dioxide output from the diesel generation is  equivalent to the emissions from 8,000 passenger vehicles and is not a long-term sustainable model.

At the moment, Deer Lake First Nation is the only community with its own hydro site and Kasabonika Lake First Nation augments its diesel power generation with a 30 kilowatt wind turbine. While this output pales in comparison to the million-watt capacity of Kasabonika’s fossil fuel generation, installing even just two more could reduce the reliance on diesel by 10 percent. The challenge of annually transporting vast quantities of fuel to many of these inaccessible locations is not viable over the long-term. Short of a complete overhaul of the current infrastructure system in the region, there needs to be more thought about integrating renewable energy sources, such as Smart Microgrid technology, in these areas. Wind and solar generation both require significant upfront capital, likely much more in these areas because of the logistics of importing material and personnel, but these costs would easily be recovered in fuel savings. This would also help reduce pollution, an ever pressing issue with the onset of climate change, and improve local energy securities, all of which would ultimately enhance overall quality of life.

The tabling of the Pan Canadian Task Force to Reduce Use of Diesel Fuel in Remote Communities is a good start but there needs to be more outside the box thinking to provide more efficient and affordable electricity to parts of Northern Ontario.

By Mike Commito, policy analyst with Northern Policy Institute.

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