Structuring decisions about energy in developing communities: an example from Canada's north

Abstract

Decisions about energy in developing communities are challenging from a technical standpoint, and because of the unique characteristics that typify them, e.g. limited infrastructure and government budgets, complex social and political arrangements, and economic vulnerability. Against the backdrop of these challenges, the government of Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT) is attempting to reform the region's energy system. This paper provides insights from the decision sciences, stemming from our work on the NWT's energy planning process, about how to structure decisions about energy development and delivery so as to effectively meet a range of stakeholders’ objectives in a transparent and inclusive manner.

Keywords:

• decision making
• energy
• developing communities
• trade-offs
• Canada

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the residents and Government of the Northwest Territories for their assistance throughout the conduct of this case study and the preparation of this manuscript. They are particularly grateful for the support received from Lesley Cabott, Phil Duguay, Mark Henry, Rob Marshall and Dave Nightingale. This research was supported by the Government of the Northwest Territories, Carbon Management Canada, the Canada School for Energy and Environment, and the US National Science Foundation (under award number SES-0924210). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our sponsors.

The authors were not burdened by any conflicts of interest in the conduct of this research, nor in the preparation of the manuscript stemming from it.

Notes

1. In the most recent report of the HDI (2013), Canada ranks 11th.

2. There are three types of performance measures (Keeney and Gregory 2005): natural measures that directly measure an impact (e.g. dollar amounts for financial costs, atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ emissions); proxy measures that indirectly measure impacts when natural measures do not exist (e.g. using forest cover to measure carbon stock); and constructed measures that are developed specifically for an objective when neither natural nor proxy measures exist or are appropriate (e.g. using surveys to assess community well-being).

3. A final report summarising the workshop can be found at: http://www.iti.gov.nt.ca/Publications/2013/energy/Charrette_Report_V8.pdf