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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know the Northwest Territories has some of the highest energy costs in the country, and these high costs have a big impact on our cost of living. Community government leaders are struggling with these escalating costs, and there does not appear to be any relief in sight.
At the recent NWT Association of Communities annual general meeting in Fort Simpson, community government representatives passed two resolutions that raised concerns about the cost of electrical power and the management of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. These resolutions are driven by the frustrations they have with our current system. They are looking for alternatives in order to obtain the best value for money for their residents.
Large non-hydro communities like Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Inuvik are considering a number of options, including finding alternate energy suppliers. If these three communities withdraw from the NTPC, this could have a serious impact on the remaining Northwest Territories Power Corporation customer base and the overall operations of the NTPC.
Mr. Speaker, community government leaders have met with the Premier, the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation and the Minister Responsible for the Public Utilities Board and discussed two options they would like the government to consider. One would be to treat every resident in the territory the same and bring in the one-rate zone and bring Yellowknife and Hay River back under the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
The second option would be to sell the Power Corporation to another energy supplier with the capacity to develop some of the vast hydro potential in our territory. This alternative would allow the GNWT to rid itself of the debt load associated with NTPC and could lead to a reduction of electrical costs in our communities.
The government will be reviewing electricity rates, regulations and the Power Subsidy Program over the next year. This is a real opportunity for the government to consider all the options and look for solutions that will provide all residents with affordable energy. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on a Member’s statement made by my colleague from Nahendeh on the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, we recognize that the cost of living across the Northwest Territories is very high. Even Cabinet recognizes that, because they have a cost-of-living committee. They need to look no further than the Northwest Territories Power Corp to help try to bring down the costs across the Northwest Territories.
As Mr. Menicoche said, there are three large communities on the grid that are seriously considering pulling off the grid, and that will affect the costs for the rest of the people across the NWT. They’d like to have the same price, or a fairly level price, as what they have to pay down here.
Mr. Speaker, when NTPC in Inuvik converted to gas, I really thought their power was going to go down, but that didn’t happen. If anything, it went up even further. We’ve got the gas 20 kilometres from town, yet the price still didn’t go down. I’m sure that if they piped that gas down to Alberta, they’d pay less for it down there than we do up here.
Taltson hydro project is another one I have a hard time selling in the Beaufort-Delta, Mr. Speaker, because they want to know who is to benefit from this other than the diamond mines. Who will pay? It’s hard to sell that back home. There are no immediate benefits to the residents of the Beaufort-Delta, so they have a concern with that.
In April of 2008 the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council had a meeting up in Inuvik. They passed a motion that said the NTPC is a corporation that’s accountable to the government and the residents of the Northwest Territories. They’ve also asked that this Assembly strongly consider instructing the Auditor General of Canada to conduct an audit on the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and see what they can do to improve their services without giving themselves huge bonuses in the process.
These folks represent communities that have to live with extremely high costs of utilities. This Assembly should listen to these people, and we should act on their recommendations. It’s important to them, Mr. Speaker. It should be important to us. As residents of the Northwest Territories affected by a corporation that’s owned by the Northwest Territories, I think all of the Northwest Territories should benefit from this corporation.
I’ll have questions for the Minister of NTPC at the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to talk about the high cost of energy in our communities and the high cost of power, especially in diesel communities, and the continued rise in regard to diesel and in regard to the effect it will have on our power rates, home heating fuel and, more importantly, on this government’s ability to provide programs and services.
Mr. Speaker, we have a public application process for riders, yet we just saw a major increase in that last application process. It is costing the government something like $2 million every time we file an application through the PUB process. Also, our Territorial Power Support Program continues to rise and is in excess of almost $10 million and rising every day.
Mr. Speaker, the whole energy costs in the territory — where we pay for riders from residential-energy-cost riders to general-energy-rate riders to diesel riders to shortfall riders to water-rate riders — are almost to a point where these riders are overtaking people’s costs of maintaining their own homes and also the cost for businesses to sustain themselves.
Mr. Speaker, this effect has probably one of the biggest impacts we’re going to see in the 16th Assembly. We do have to react to it sooner rather than later. The cost of producing energy in our communities is related to diesel. We have no alternative means of generating power in a lot of our diesel communities. More importantly, this is having a major effect on our business communities, from the northern stores to the co-ops to any entrepreneur who wants to run a business in our communities but cannot keep the lights on. I hate to say that a few people may have to turn the lights off and move their businesses where it’s less expensive to operate and maintain them.
Mr. Speaker, this government has to take action on this matter. At the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister responsible for the Energy Corporation questions on exactly where we’re going with this matter.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
