Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation. Possibly with the exception of employees of the Power Corporation, as outlined by my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen, many residents of the Northwest Territories are still curious about the content of the unsolicited ATCO proposal. Specifically, what are the details? The people really want to know. When will the Premier be sharing the details of the proposal with the people of the Northwest Territories, who are ultimately the owners of the Power Corporation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker, the process we’re involved with looking at the ATCO proposal is one I’ve laid out with Members as well as with key stakeholders involved in this. The process we’re using is one that as the GNWT is the sole shareholder. Yes, GNWT works for the people of the Northwest Territories. As we would with any business case and any public corporation, as well, work with their key stakeholders to do an evaluation. We’re in that process. The proposal itself is one that just starts the process, and we will be moving forward on that basis. Once the initial work, as I’ve laid out previously in the Assembly, on the rates regulation review as well as the Power Corp specific review itself, we would have more information to share with Members of this Assembly. That would be the process we would be involved with at this time. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for that. He kind of went into some aspects of the second question I want to ask, which is although there has been some information out there and there’s been a lot of press coverage on this topic, people are still confused about the review itself and the timelines that we’ll be moving forward with. Could the Premier tell me when will a more comprehensive outline and a timeline of the review of the unsolicited ATCO proposal be made public? Thank you, Mr. Speaker
Mr. Speaker, our process, again, is involved with working with Members as we would move forward on this and from time to time, involving key stakeholders in our decision-making. If we are going to move forward beyond looking at a proposal, then we would engage in a process to involve those that we feel need to be a part of that overall process. Right now things have been delayed. We don’t expect some of the discussions to really start in the sense of what it might be to expand looking at that proposal until probably fall time, late fall, late August, into September. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Premier for that and I look forward to working with the Premier and Cabinet as they move forward on this particular topic. In relation to that, I’m curious who will make the final decision to merge with ATCO or not merge with ATCO to run the Power Corporation and when does the Premier anticipate a decision will be made? Will it be made by Cabinet, the decision itself, or will it be done by the Legislature as a whole? If it is done by the Legislature as a whole, how will that be determined or how will that direction be set? Will it be by way of a vote in this Legislature? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we are way, way ahead of the process with the question. In a sense, as we would look at this, once the work is done, I will provide it to Cabinet and then sit down with Members as to what’s being presented and we’ll decide as Members of this Assembly. That is Regular Members and Cabinet, will sit down and have the discussion as to what the potential next steps may be. At that point, we’ll decide how we would move forward on that initiative. I go back to quite a number of Assemblies ago when the initiative, for example, of previous governments was to privatize a number of its operations. There was a motion put forward and consideration to stop that type of review or work being done. So it wasn’t, in a sense, a decision, but a motion. Working with Members in this forum we’d have to look at what next steps we have available to us. But first and foremost, we need to have the work done. We will sit down with Members and decide what makes sense and best business case for the people of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and once again, thanks to the Premier to that. I know it’s a long way off, but once a tentative decision is made, regardless of what that decision is, whether we merge or we don’t merge, will there be public meetings to discuss the GNWT’s position and obtain input and recommendations from all the owners of the Power Corporation, all the people of the Northwest Territories, prior to any irreversible decision being made? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, I look to the authority of this House. The Members here represent the people of the Northwest Territories from quite a diverse range of communities and businesses and individuals. So our work would start here. We would decide how far we’d go and I’d also caution Members that we need to be careful in how we approach this. If we’re going to do every business case that we’re involved with by going out to the public, decisions won’t be made for quite some time. People of the Northwest Territories have made it quite clear they’re looking for some direction and some change in the way we do business, when it comes to generating power and distributing that power, in the hopes that we would stabilize or lower costs for people in the Territories, and that’s our goal at the end of this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member from Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
