Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Tugliq Energy to receive $20M loan for wind project

NEWS  SEP 9, 2026 – 1:45 PM EDT Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Tugliq Energy to receive $20M loan for wind project Funds to help pay for wind turbine and energy storage system The Canadian Infrastructure Bank’s $20 million loan to Kitikmeot Corp. and Tugliq Energy will help pay for a windmill and battery storage unit at Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.’s Hope Bay site, 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. (File photo courtesy of Agnico Eagle) By Mosha Folger The Canada Infrastructure Bank is loaning $20 million to a Montreal-based company and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s business development arm for a wind energy project near Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.’s Hope Bay gold mine site. The bank announced the loan Wednesday in a news release. The first phase of the project will see 4.2-megawatt wind turbine and a four-megawatt energy storage system installed next to the mine, which is located about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. It’s expected to provide 20 per cent of Hope Bay’s energy needs during periods of high wind and reduce the mine’s annual diesel consumption by seven per cent, according to Agnico Eagle. “There’s lots of wind up there,” said Agnico Eagle vice-president Christopher Adams in a phone interview from his office in Toronto. “This is why we’re very excited about starting off with one turbine. We do plan to build four more.” Although the switch from diesel to wind power won’t save the mine money at first, Adams said Agnico Eagle is happy to help reduce the territory’s dependence on diesel. “It’s almost like a pilot project, the first wind turbine, and it’s really going to provide us with an opportunity to really understand our capabilities,” he said. The project will have another benefit, said Kitikmeot Corp. CEO David Omilgoitok: employment opportunities for Inuit. “We believe this is the start of greater investment and economic impacts within the region for years to come,” Omilgoitok wrote in the news release from Canada Infrastructure Bank. Hillary Thatcher, the bank’s executive vice-president for Indigenous and northern infrastructure investments, said her organization is a federal entity that focuses on impacts, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and economic participation of Inuit, instead of profit. “We’re more flexible in our pricing,” she said. “We need to get paid back, but we’re not here to make large amounts of money.” “If you have really good wind, and it’s producing a lot of energy, we can get paid…