Floyd Roland

Indeed we know that any changes to our electrical structure rates and regulations will have an impact on the people we represent. We must have that discussion in this forum so that we know they are all aware of what the plan is and how we plan to move forward. There is a commitment that we will have that debate here. The Minister responsible will be providing further information on timelines. As I stated, if everything goes as we’ve anticipated, and the discussions and final plans are put in place, we could see changes going forward as soon as the next winter cycle.

The response that we’re working on will have to come forward here. Any structural change to the way the rates are set up will have to come through this Assembly. There will have to be a debate. As I stated, the timing right now is looking at probably our spring session as an opportunity, but we’re hoping that if all goes well, that we could be looking at changes, if this Assembly agrees to them, before the next winter season hits us.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House today to attend promotional events related to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is early days and I would say that once we start to gather and the initial work has been done and touching base with departments with this package of information we’ll be able to get the departments to pull something together and prepare to come to Members to say how do we engage the collective in the sense of the body of people and organizations with expertise along with our own. We are a ways away. We need to pull the initial pieces together and go to Members and seek their advice and what are sort of the next steps we can look at taking.

We set up a process to undergo a look at rate regulations, distribution of power in the Northwest Territories. We underwent a review process on the Power Corporation itself and we are nowhere close to looking at making that decision. That was brought up earlier, about is there any part of the review that would look at structure and so on. The rate of return is part of the system. The report also suggested the cost to service should be looked at through a number of the zones. So there are initiatives in that report that would allow us to look at overall function of the Power Corporation.

But let...

Mr. Speaker, in the early days of project development of the Mackenzie Gas Project, for example, and others, we have talked about devolution and resource revenue sharing is one way to help streamline the regulatory maze that is out there, as well as streamline the processes we can put in place and capture the benefits of development and keep them in the North. Unfortunately, as the record clearly shows, numerous governments have tried to move this along and we have not been able to get to that last hurdle. One of the issues that I addressed at the last regional leaders’ meeting is we need to...

Mr. Speaker, the legislation is clear. Under advisement of the Cabinet, the Minister can pose a question to the Supreme Court. This is not challenging aboriginal leadership in the Northwest Territories. This is going to provide final clarification on who has authority. That is not taken lightly, because when you have your own Members of the Legislative Assembly raising issue of whose authority, that definitely needs to be cleared up. So we have provided that avenue. The courts have their own process now which will seek input from all of the people that they feel is necessary across the...

Mr. Speaker, as the Government of the Northwest Territories has quite a number of programs through our Minister’s responsibility under ITI, we do a number of things, whether it is through the Business Incentive Policy, so we have contractors in the North taking advantage of the work that we have available as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Our SEED program, for example, that we put in place to help businesses in our smaller communities. So we have done quite a number of things to enhance businesses in the North. We know we need to do a better job.

The other things we have tried to...

Mr. Speaker, the initial report that came out that was presented did show there was a balancing of, for example, corporate costs, the headquarter costs across the board. So there would be some redistribution there. There was some impact on hydro communities as well. That was what was presented.

Since our initial discussions with Members of the Assembly, we’ve looked at other ways of mitigating those costs and bringing forward a process that would lessen the impact on any community of any increases and try to come up with lowering the cost overall and stabilizing those costs. So I would say that...

Mr. Speaker, my understanding, again, through the rate review that’s been ongoing, the cost of service versus a rate of return is one of the areas that has been discussed and some recommendations made around when you look at the different zones that are being contemplated in that report. So that is an area of looking at cost of services versus rate of return. Thank you.