Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleague from Nahendeh for leaving me a few minutes on the clock here. My questions today for the Premier relate to the Member’s statement that I made. We say that we are interested in lowering the cost of living for people in the Northwest Territories. Some 22 years ago the Government of the Northwest Territories repatriated the power company from the Northern Canada Power Commission and established the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. As creating that Crown corporation, we necessarily, as a government, owned it, we were the shareholder. Then we instituted the Public Utilities Board to regulate that power company and some other utilities in the Northwest Territories. As the shareholder, we require the NTPC to act like a business and to earn a profit so they can pay us, as a shareholder, a dividend, which we could then take and redistribute that money to levelize the power rates in the Northwest Territories. As you can see, the whole thing gets really convoluted.
The Premier told my colleague Mr. Ramsay that we could have a fairly immediate positive impact on the cost of living in the Northwest Territories if we would implement some of the recommendations in the electricity rate review. Could the Premier tell me if there are any recommendations there that would somehow streamline this fairly convoluted process we have for generating, regulating and delivering power to the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the rate review work that was done does highlight a number of areas that we could look at when it comes to the way we do business and how we’re structured across the board, and that would include the Power Corporation. For example, rate of return versus cost of doing business, in a sense, is one of those areas that could be looked at. The other work that we were doing is tied to this. We’re still wanting to sit down with committee to go over how we would look at the NTPC review itself. But more specifically, I believe there is opportunity in the energy rate review work that’s being done and how we would respond could give us areas to look at in looking at potential areas of change, if the House was willing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Mr. Speaker, I am very interested in what becomes of all these reviews because, Mr. Speaker, in the community of Hay River resides the Power Corporation headquarters, which we value very greatly; the headquarters for Northland Utilities, which has been there for over 70 years; and, of course, the headquarters and offices of the Public Utilities Board, also located in Hay River. So this is something that is very important to me, but I’m sure very important to other communities and other people in the Northwest Territories as well.
Mr. Speaker, again, I ask the Premier, is there a precedent or a template out there somewhere of a jurisdiction like ours where we can bring the generation and distribution and sale of power closer to us as a government, in some way eliminating some of these very costly processes that we necessarily have to go through. Thank you.
There are templates across the country that are similar when you look at our size. The one closest to us, of course, is Nunavut. As the Member pointed out in her Member’s statement, when division occurred, we took a stance. At the time, the government-of-the-day took a stance where it was focused on the business entity, as arm’s length as possible. The Nunavut government has taken a different approach and we’d have to look at that model to see if it’s worked in that location. I know they’ve been pressed with their issues around the cost of energy as well. But through this energy rate review process and working with Members of the Assembly, we would be, again, as part of this process, engaging in some of the big picture look at how we deliver, and is the process we’re under the best way to do it. So those things are up for discussion with Members. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this may be a slightly technical question, but I’ll ask the Premier in a general way, has some analysis been undertaken that would indicate the cost-savings if the Power Corporation were not operated as an arm’s length Crown corporation but as an entity providing power not on a for-profit basis but just as an essential service on a cost basis. Thank you.
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.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just, I suppose, for the comfort of those people out there who know this electricity rate review is going on, I would like to ask the Premier if any of the recommendations considered are going to result in any increased power rates for any community in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I apologize for that. In the shuffling of my papers I didn’t catch the last part of the Member’s question. So if I could have that repeated. Thank you.
We are considering the rate review report. I’m sure people out there are wondering about what will be the outcome of that deliberation. I’d just like to, for the record today, have the Premier tell us if any of those recommendations would indicate increased power rates in any community in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
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 in our response as the GNWT, we believe we’ve come up with a package that would, in fact, stabilize those costs or reduce costs overall. There are some issues we have yet to deal with on community service by NUL and the Power Corp specifically. Thank you.
