Full power to expected be restored to Pangnirtung Sunday night: GN

The Government ofNunavutsaid Sunday thatQulliqEnergy hopesdto restore full power to all ofPangnirtungby late Sunday night.

"A generator will arrive inPangnirtungthis afternoon to assist with powering the mainfeeder lines in the community," the government stated in an update Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, an investigation into the cause of the fire is waiting on anengineer to firstassess the structural integrity of the building. The government says the assessment is needed to make sure it's safe for workers with the Office of the Fire Marshall to enter the building.

"There is no timeline for this work at this time as the priority right now is to restore power to the entire community," said Hillary Casey, an information officer with the government's emergency management division.

Pangnirtung, which has a population ofaround 1,600 people, has only had partial power since Thursday, with power rotated to different sections of the community at two- and then four-hour intervals.

A fire at the local power plant caused community-wide outages in the early morning hoursThursday, promptingthehamlet to declare a local state of emergency which will remain in place until power is restored.

The government says there may be periodic outages as full power is restored and services are added to the main power line.

"The community health centre and both schools will remain on backup generators torelieve power loads on the main feeder lines," the government said.

Yesterday, SSI Micro said itsQiniqsatelliteinternetservice was up and running as of 8p.m. ET.

The company said it did not expect any further service disruptions.