Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister Responsible for NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are in phase 2 of the general rate application presently, and we’re just waiting to conclude that. We have our general rate applications every three years.
I’d like to ask the Minister if NTPC has to bring forward their request for a general rate application to the Minister’s office to justify it, and does he approve that?
Mr. Speaker, the question raised by the Member is very good. I'm being notified by the Crown corporation board of directors through the chairperson. The Crown has its own strict guidelines and legislation. When they go before the Public Utilities Board, they file the GRA. However, the Minister is aware and is in contact continuously with the chairperson of NTPC.
I’ll thank the Minister for that. I’d like to ask the Minister: because NTPC is a Crown corporation owned by the people of the Northwest Territories, would it not be possible for any applications for a general rate increase to be approved by the Legislative Assembly?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is certainly correct on that: the Crown corporation is owned by…. We are the shareholders. My one responsibility in the Cabinet is to work on behalf of the shareholders in trust in terms of the corporation. If the legislation was to change and how we do business within our Crown corporation changed, we certainly should be having the discussion with the House Members from this side and from the other side in terms of talking about how to restructure our corporation. Certainly, Mr. McLeod, under the Minister coordinating the Energy Committee, we are looking at all options of how we operate Crown corporations such as NTPC.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Final supplementary, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, on this side of the House, have heard from the shareholders of this Crown corporation, which is why we continue to raise the issue of the high cost of utilities. They would like the Legislative Assembly to play a major role in approving general rate applications that NTPC wants to bring forward.
I’d like to ask the Minister my final question. There’s obviously a cost to delivering power. I would just like to know from the Minister if that’s the same cost that people pay? If it costs a dollar to deliver the power, are we paying exactly a dollar, are we paying $1.20, or are we paying less? The NTPC has a surplus, and my understanding is that half of that goes back into the power subsidy, which is a good thing. But I would propose putting all that money back into the power subsidy and just having whatever it costs to generate power — charge that to the people of the Northwest Territories. Is that possible?
For me, certainly along with the Ministers’ Energy Coordinating Committee, Members have a role. I look forward to some good discussions with Members of the House in terms of our rate structure, our power and the high costs of our communities. My understanding is that we request the dividends from our Crown corporation, and from there we top up the dividend in terms of the surplus. We requested that from NTPC.
We certainly look forward to having some further discussions in terms of the operations of NTPC and remind the people of the North that the Public Utilities Board scrutinizes every step we have in our operations, and every cent is accounted for in terms of us doing operations and having reliable service in the Northwest Territories for our communities. We look forward to having discussions about the operations of our Crown corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This question is for the Minister of ENR. The last two years we had beluga whales stuck in Husky Lake, just east of Tuk. Can the Minister advise me what the department will do this summer to try to stop them from entering the lake and help avoid their suffering?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, fundamentally and initially, this is a federal responsibility, but ENR tries to be as responsive and as involved as possible. Of course, I would defer to the superior knowledge and expertise of my colleague. If he has any specific suggestions in anticipation of the coming fall, I’d be most happy to sit down and talk to him about that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to that, Mr. Minister. I’m here for you. We must have lost about 300 to 400 beluga whales. Just hearing that the Minister has already committed to me in regard to working with me, I’d take that as a yes.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. I don’t know if there was a question there, but the honourable Minister Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, clearly, I appreciate knowing the Member is there for me. I look forward to maybe sitting down with him before the end of session to talk about some specifics we could move on collectively.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question. The department of ENR should really do something before these whales become Species at Risk and my people cannot hunt these. I look forward to working with the Minister.
No question there, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During Member’s statements I raised the issue of the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan. It’s like an open book for businesses out there to bid, tender and whatnot because they have our clear reference guide as to what we’re willing to pay, not to say we don’t pay more at times. My questions really go to the Minister of Finance to find out what he would be willing to do to help update the process to ensure we don’t show all our cards when it comes to going out there for bidding opportunities. Is he willing to look at updating the infrastructure plan, as I had suggested earlier, where we list the details of the project but keep out the dollar amounts?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Finance, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The area of infrastructure acquisition has been one of concern for the Government of the Northwest Territories. We’ve initiated an Infrastructure Cabinet Committee led by the Hon. Michael McLeod, who’s been working with a number of other departments to come up with options, timing of when we release the Capital Acquisition Plan. As well, for example, the Member has raised the issue of having some of our smaller capital items in a grouping.
That is all under consideration at this point. We’d have to work with the committee to see if there’s an acceptable way of proceeding forward.
It’s really appropriate, although we’re not allowed to waive items here, that the colour of the Main Estimates is gold. I had a reference to it recently as “it’s the gold book for tendering,” and this provides a reference.
The issue really is: would he be willing to look at this and address this? I didn’t hear that clearly. It sort of was a wishy-washy answer. I want to hear that this government is willing to act, to operate in the best way for the people of the Northwest Territories, and giving the numbers out is not sound management. Will the Minister commit to including this item as an issue to deal with in their planning?
Mr. Speaker, obviously the Member is not hearing what I’m saying, or there’s something not connecting here because I believe I committed to working with the Members on the Infrastructure Acquisition Plan. In fact, it is a concern to us. That is why we’ve put an Infrastructure Cabinet Committee group together and are working with Members on the budget process, looking at timing, looking at how we bundle our projects together, and how they’re presented to the people of the Northwest Territories. We will work with committee on that. So yes, we are working with committee, and we’ll continue to do so.
Mr. Speaker, my humble apologies go to the Minister of Finance if he actually had a commitment in there. Usually, they’re so thinly veiled they’re hard to recognize. Well, they’re even worse from the Minister of ENR. But can we expect to see something in a timely way by this fall, before business plans, on this specific subject?
Obviously, our briefings are working because the Member is aware we’re planning to go to committee. We’re looking at the timing of the budget. We’re looking a number of issues around trying to come back with a way of limiting the forced growth in our Capital Acquisition Plan.
We’ll continue to work with Members on the timing of it. We’re hoping that in this budget, this fall, we should be able to present the Capital Acquisition Plan at a different time from what we’ve done and a different practice from what we’ve done in the past.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Capital Acquisition Plan. We’re going to look at a new schedule, and that’s good. That’s good. But my question really was: before the business plan starts, will the Minister be bringing forward a plan of how to address this? As he said already, it’s coming to committee, but will we see it before the business plan starts this fall?
We’ve made the offer to committee to work with committee closely on this process of how we proceed and come up with a common practice we can support going ahead. So yes, we’re going to be working with committee before a draft acquisition plan and before committee members. We have quite a number of issues to deal with in that time.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of ECE on the Languages Commissioner. I’m wondering: given the report that we’ve seen, where budget wasn’t spent and communities weren’t visited, what kind of oversight does the Minister have? What sort of oversight role does he play in the performance of the commissioner’s duties?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That commissioner has their own role, to implement the operations of the Languages Commissioner within the communities and regions. My understanding is that she is a statutory officer. With our ECE department we work closely with her as well. I believe there have been some recommendations brought forward, and we are working on those recommendations, so she is in that role. Mahsi.
I’m wondering what sort of accountability here…. As I understand it, this commissioner hardly visited any communities. To me, as just a member of the public and so on, I saw very little profile for the Languages Commissioner. I think back to a few commissioners ago when it was huge, in the news all the time; it was a big part of…. To me, this is a really important role, so I’m wondering what sort of accountability…. How does this commissioner get feedback about the job she’s doing and so on, to make sure things get happening as they should?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Before I go to the Minister on this one, the Languages Commissioner is a statutory officer answering to the Legislative Assembly and the Board of Management. I would suspect that would be the avenue to approach regarding areas of accountability about statutory officers, so I’m going to rule that question out of order right now.
Thank you, Members. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on the questions that have been asked in the House today by my colleagues with regard to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, but I want to direct my question to the Minister Responsible for the FMBS, because the FMBS oversees the Power Subsidy Program. People talk about levelized rates, and I know that the PUB has commented in the past on the issue of one-rate zone, or levelized rates, suggesting that it is completely within the proper mandate of this government to be the social engineers of power rates in the Northwest Territories. To that end, we have something called the Territorial Power Subsidy Program, and this allows everyone to pay the same rate in the Northwest Territories as Yellowknife, up to 700 kilowatts per hour.
When was the last time this program was reviewed? Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that if it is colder and darker with longer cold seasons farther north, why would it be 700 kilowatt hours across the board when you know full well that somebody living in the southern part of the Northwest Territories in a small community is going to require far less support than a person living in the high Arctic?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member Responsible for FMBS, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program itself hasn’t been reviewed for quite some time. In fact, the Member is right: everyone above the Yellowknife rate would pay the first…. We would provide the Territorial Power Support Program for everyone up to the first 700 kilowatt hours. We are concerned and want to look at this. That’s why the Energy Coordinating Committee will be looking at this power support program, its structure and how it’s used in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, does the Premier consider it would be sensible to pro-rate the power subsidy based on the part of the territory you’re living in, in terms of your demand and your consumption of this utility?
Mrs. Groenewegen, you might be asking the Premier for an opinion, but I’ll allow the Minister to answer. Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Territorial Power Support Program has grown substantially over the last number of years. Questions about energy and its supply and how we provide this subsidy program need to be reviewed. For the most part, on average, when we do a comparison, most households can live within the 700 kilowatt hours, and that is something we also take into consideration when we set the program parameters.
Again, it will be one of the areas as we proceed forward on the energy file: reviewing this program and seeing how it best works in the Northwest Territories. At the existing pace, we’re going to quickly run out of options as we proceed, and we’ll have to be finding more money to keep topping up the program. We do need to come forward with a comprehensive plan on how we will proceed on energy and energy use in the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, to the issue of finding money to top up the program: right now, where do the funds come from for the territorial support program?
Mr. Speaker, part of it is a request we make of the corporation. We request a dividend on an annual basis, and then we top it up from general revenue for the rest of the program. In fact, in the last few years of the budget it has been $3.5 million from the Power Corporation. The rest has been from general revenues of the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask if the amount of the contribution to the territorial support program through a dividend from the NWT Power Corporation has been declining in recent years. At one time didn’t the NWT Power Corporation’s dividend completely finance the territorial support program?
Mr. Speaker, at one time, in fact, the dividends used to pay for the Territorial Power Support Program when it was less than 4 and a half million dollars. It used to be that the amount covered it off 100 per cent. It now covers less than 50 per cent. We reduced the dividend to 3 and a half million dollars, and we have to fill up the rest. For example, we’re looking at just under $10 million to cover off that program during this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
