Mr. Speaker, the business case that was put forward, the modelling, the request for support from federal funds, as well as this total project being based on the power purchase agreements that are to be signed with the mines. Without those power purchase agreements, there is no project. The issue of the construction phase is until the construction is done and the delivery of power happens, the revenue source isn’t there yet, so that’s the construction phase that they are seeking to have some commitment from the Government of the Northwest Territories or the federal government to deal with that...

There are a number of protections built in place when it comes to whether it is community drinking water, whether it is regulatory issues around the environment or around worksites and so on. More importantly, through the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality, they set maximum acceptable concentrations for some of those areas of concern or the contaminants in the water that would be deemed acceptable. One of our other departments of Environment and Natural Sources does some work on the total water ecosystems that we operate within the Northwest Territories and are affected by other...

Mr. Speaker, the partnership that’s been formed, the partnership agreement that’s been started and worked on and has been initialled by the other partners, we, as the GNWT, as the sole shareholder of the Hydro Corporation and down through to, well, it would be the NWT Energy Corporation, have yet to sign that. We have to review that to see if, in fact, that is the best business case model that we could support of this project, and we’ve asked for some additional time to review that document. We don’t want to get into a situation where we’ve not protected our full interests, as Members have...

I know that, for example, in the NTPC review that was done, the issue with communications with the customer base is one that was brought up. I know we have to do an overall review and a response to that area to see if we can improve that. I’ve shared that communication side with the board as recently as this morning in fact. That is an area that we need to work on both from our side as the GNWT as well as from the board and sharing that information back and forth. As for the establishment or enhancing that level of service in communities by existing staff, I will check if there are any plans...

That would be difficult to provide an answer at this point. The long-term fiscal plan, again, of the partnership is, one, the partnership will have a board of governors, a governance council set up to make these business decisions. The business model that’s been put in place sees this project being viable because of the power purchase agreements and the return on investment through those after paying down the initial portion that would grow, of course, would grow faster if we were to do the full expansion up to I believe it’s 56 megawatts. Thank you.

The issue of disconnection and disconnection notices is one that has been raised a number of times either through this forum or directly to myself. I have forwarded that on to the board. I will again ask that that information be brought forward to look at it and see if there are particular issues the Member would like to have addressed that I could forward on to the board.

There have been ongoing negotiations for quite some time with the mines. In fact, there will be a meeting held in the very next...probably within the next week with the key folks from the mines. That will tell us if in fact we’re going to put any more effort into this. It is based on power purchase agreements that have to be signed off. But before we can get there, much like the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline, much work needs to be done to build the business model to go through the environmental phase, then a final decision on should the project go or not. We’re faced with the same scenario in the...

Mr. Speaker, the alternate routes have been looked at by the Hydro Corporation and the Power Corp because through the environmental review they were asked for additional information. That was provided. This project will not work. We will not be able to sell energy to the mines for an acceptable rate. They will not sign power purchase agreements for a cost higher than they’re able to develop it for in today’s environment. Adding approximately $100 million-plus to the project by going around the west side of the lake would put that project in a place where it is uneconomical and we have no...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the debt will be handled on our books as we’ve laid out here by accepting that, and the issue of having a letter or the Order-in-Council, as it would be referred to, from Minister Flaherty, my understanding from the staff having discussions between Finance Canada and our own finance staff here that his department is working on the temporary adjustment that will allow us to go beyond that current limit that is set, again, relief from this project. I’ve had that verbally from the Minister of Finance. I put a lot of weight in that and the fact that his staff...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Hydro Strategy does set out the development of a grid over the long-term life of the Northwest Territories. This piece of our plan is based on the business case, a business model that sees revenue accruing to the partnership and to the Hydro Corporation. From there, the benefits then would flow in other areas, Mr. Speaker, that would see, for example, the GDP of the Government of the Northwest Territories remain or grow because we’re able to supply electrical power to industry at a lower rate than is being done, so now because they have to build...