The president and CEO of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) has resigned, ending a 28-year career with the utility that serves Hay River and dozens of other communities across the territory. Cory Strang will stay in the role until December 31, 2026, after the board accepted his resignation on August 28, 2026.
Strang, who is Métis and was born in Hay River, was appointed to the top job in November 2021. He was the first Indigenous president and CEO from the NWT to lead NTPC since it was established in 1988. Before becoming CEO, he spent nearly three decades in financial roles at the utility, including budgeting, regulatory affairs, risk management, and as chief financial officer.
The NTPC board has started looking for a new CEO and a transition plan. At the same time, the utility is also recruiting a new chief financial officer because the current one is retiring. That means two top leadership positions need to be filled.
Hay River residents may feel the effects of this leadership change directly. NTPC took over local electricity distribution from Naka Power Utilities on March 1, 2025, making it the power provider for the community after years of legal and regulatory work. The utility is also working on big projects that affect power rates and reliability, including modernizing the electricity system, upgrading aging infrastructure, and a proposed $2 to $3 billion expansion of the Taltson hydro facility.
Power rates have been a concern for households. NTPC had applied for a 24.8 percent increase, but a territorial government subsidy brought the proposed number down to about 15 percent. That works out to roughly $37 more per month for an average home. Outages have also risen, with the NWT seeing 30 percent more power interruptions in 2025 than in previous years, including extended outages in Hay River while Taltson was being overhauled.
The Taltson hydro plant returned to service in March 2026 after nearly two years of shutdown, but a corrosion problem in the surge tank ended up costing nearly $37 million — far more than the original $15 million estimate — once diesel generation for South Slave communities was factored in. NTPC is also pursuing the Taltson Hydro Expansion Project, which would add 60 megawatts of generation and connect the North and South Slave grids through a new transmission line, including a submarine cable across Great Slave Lake. More than half a dozen Indigenous groups signed a letter of intent in April 2026 to pursue an ownership stake, including the Salt River First Nation, Łutsel K’e Dene First Nation, Northwest Territories Métis Nation, Fort Smith Métis Council, Hay River Métis Government Council and Fort Resolution Métis Government, but the Deninu Kųę́ First Nation pulled its support in August 2026, saying it had been left out of key discussions.
