Louis Sebert

Mr. Speaker, our vision, the vision of the Power Corporation, is to be provider of choice to our customers, a valuable partner to industry and Aboriginal groups within the Northwest Territories. So that is the vision of the Power Corporation.

They're the experimental and new technologies that are coming along, it is our intention of course to use those first in the thermal communities as we wish to get off of diesel power. But there are other initiatives. We are also encouraging people to reduce the amount of power they use to LED, more efficient refrigerators and so on, so we're hoping that the amount of power that they require is going to be reduced, and this 20 per cent figure which has been referenced several times today is a technical number in the sense that if you're going to have a mixture of diesel and solar, you can't go...

Clearly, lower costs would be a benefit both to private individuals and to industry. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, connecting with the national or even international grid clearly would not be a short-term thing we could possible contemplate, as it would be a very expensive project to connect either through Saskatchewan or Alberta. There are costs, but certainly there have been talks at a very high level about that very project and we will be in talks with Saskatchewan as to the possibility of such a project proceeding; however, it is a project of great complexity involving several governments, also involving several Aboriginal groups on our side of the border and several on the Saskatchewan...

As the Energy Strategy is rolled out it's not going to be Yellowknife-centric; I do believe they are going out to regional centres. So we will be seeking input, and the other Minister involved also will be seeking input from the communities on just the issues that are raised by the Member opposite.

Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation always works with the communities. Specifically dealing with the issue of Colville Lake, which was a bit of a test case or an experimental case for the corporation, we can advise that the cost of the solar battery system there was $2.7 million. Now, we're hoping that the cost of these types of systems will decline, as seems to be often the case with technology and, at that point, we perhaps could look at other communities. So, yes, we are willing to look at other communities in the future. I can't specifically say we'd be looking at the community referred to...

Certainly as the Energy Strategy unfolds we are going to be looking at new technologies. We are, in the corporation, always interested in looking at newer technologies that are more energy efficient and so on, but for now this 20 per cent cap was imposed for reasons of efficiency and safety.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can advise that there is in fact a 20 per cent cap. This was developed as part of the NWT's solar strategy and it was imposed for technical reasons to ensure the electricity remains reliable. More than 20 per cent solar makes the system unstable. Now, in Colville Lake it is about 20 per cent, but that was only after some very expensive batteries and sophisticated load control were installed at the power plant. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, the problem is that that this 20 per cent was not simply dreamed up. It was a figure above which the diesel system became erratic or undependable. Now, if we had a system that provided 100 per cent of the power needs and we no longer needed diesel that would be one thing, but it would seem to me that a system that went up to 40 per cent, say between solar and some other system, would exacerbate the problem with the diesel system.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. The Power Corporation is involved in the development of an energy plan which has been spoken of several times in this House, so we are committed in the Power Corporation to, as I say, look at new ways of providing power, keeping in mind our vision of supplying power to communities at the cheapest, affordable and safest rate. Thank you.