Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have follow-up questions to my previous questions about the various reviews that are being undertaken with respect to power in the Northwest Territories. In follow-up to my colleague Mr. Hawkins’ questions and his reference to secret handshakes and stuff like that, just because ATCO put an unsolicited proposal on the table, I don’t think they should get beat up in this Assembly. They are a company, the founders of whom I know well and they are I think a very much to be respected and admired company from what they have been able to do in the private sector. I just want to clearly say that I don’t have any issues with ATCO, the ownership or the people. That doesn’t mean I want to sell them the Power Corporation.
Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation proposal suggests a five-year freeze on rates. That is a very short window, really, in the scheme of things. Power is an essential service. The GNWT is the biggest customer of power in the Northwest Territories, so I ask the Premier, a five-year freeze on power, but then what input do we have in terms of power rate setting? Right now, we own the Power Corporation and it is not the best scenario right now. I’m sure if you go out on this little review and ask, what you do you think of the NWT Power Corporation, it won’t be a very happy answer right now. People are unhappy. People are crabby about their power bills. Mr. Speaker, we are the biggest consumer of this essential service here as the Government of the Northwest Territories. Does the Premier agree that this is an essential service that the government should retain control of? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some of the comments the Member has made in this area leads to what may be in the future. Right now it is an essential service. That is treated as such. We end up dealing as the biggest user and the supplier of power in the North. We end up dealing on an annual basis with either rate riders or the increased cost of that. We have to look at those areas. I believe that, as the proposals have been sent in to us, it is of interest. That is why we have this initial phase of reviewing that and would decide at a future date if we should go in on that date I have given to Members earlier. Thank you.
To the review of the Power Corporation and its operations, essentially the Power Corporation gets audited every time they go to the PUB for general rate applications. So we just have been through a GRA; we have just been through a general rate application. I wasn’t there. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the kinds of costs that go into the rates that are set, the kind of return on investment. Were we there at the general rate application proceedings as the Government of the Northwest Territories observing those proceedings? Did we learn anything from that? Thank you.
I can’t speak for the last general rate application, if we had people there and what role they were playing in taking in the information. The Power Corporation is our corporation. We are the sole shareholder. We’ve been aware of the information. The Member is right; through the PUB, it is a rigorous process that it goes through. We have also heard from Members of this House and people across the Territory when they have to deal with the bump of rates. Whether it is a rate rider or a fuel stabilization rate rider or low water rate rider or just a general rate application increase, we have heard from people of the North that something has to be done to looking at that. We have heard many times by Members of this House concerns about the operation of the Power Corporation. The review and the initiatives we’re under will give us more clarity in the steps we will need to take in the future. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the PUB has already clearly stated in answers to the questions in the past with respect to the types of rate structures that are in place in the Northwest Territories, that they are not in the business of social engineering when it comes to power rates; they are interested in the economic cost of producing power. If the Government of the Northwest Territories, through our policies as the shareholder in the Power Corporation, want to affect rates through our Territorial Support Subsidy Program, that’s entirely up to us. We take the dividends in the Power Corporation, we finance the territorial support. We have a lot of capacity for doing things within our control already with respect to the rates in the smaller communities. Have we done enough? Are there other things that we could do to help offset the high costs, particularly in the diesel communities? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the high cost of energy, one, is predominantly felt in the diesel communities is correct; but as we’ve seen lately, communities served by hydro felt the bite as well. We’ve heard a number of stories about the concerns of the increase in those communities. We have to look at all our options and that’s what the work that’s undergoing now through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee, the review of the Power Corporation and the review of the ATCO proposal is to see what options are realistically on the table and what that might mean for the future of the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
The very thing that makes this a timely discussion is also something quite unprecedented. We’ve just gone through the highest price per barrel of crude oil in history and this necessarily affects production of energy in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, has the government looked at how the increases in the cost of energy here in the Northwest Territories compare with the kinds of increases that have been experienced by Canadians in other jurisdictions? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we do comparisons on the cost per kilowatt hour. It is very difficult, though, to find another jurisdiction like the Northwest Territories except, for example, Nunavut, and they’re even more predominantly dependent on fossil fuels. We have a mix of hydro and diesel. The Yukon has even more hydro than we do. Comparisons to southern jurisdictions is very different because they have a much larger rate base and that’s what also affects and drives our costs, but that shouldn’t stop us from looking at the future possibilities of what we can do as a government to try and stabilize rates, lower rates and make affordable living a reality in our communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
