The federal government’s Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency is helping pay for the study, which will look into the feasibility of connecting communities in Nunavut’s Kivalliq region to Manitoba’s hydroelectric and and fibre-optic networks. The Kivalliq Inuit Association and Wakefield, Mass.-based Anbaric Development Partners are contributing an additional $818,168. (Nunatsiaq News)

Talking point: Inuit leaders have lobbied to extend Manitoba’s power grid to communities in Hudson Bay’s western region for years, and to bring broadband and renewable energy to the communities. Access would dramatically reduce electricity prices in the community to about 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from around the 75 cents per kilowatt-hour currently charged by Qulliq Energy Corp., according to a 2015 Government of Nunavut study.