Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment questions on his announcement on the electricity Power Corporation review. It certainly is good news. Members on this side of the House applaud his statement here this morning. I just want to get some more details as we move along. It looks like some great reductions across our Territory. When would such an implementation take place? Thank you.
The honourable Minister of ITI, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will be working with the Public Utilities Board. Right now, our timelines are that we will be introducing these changes for implementation in October of 2010. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have that as a date to move forward. I know that recently in the newspaper the president of the NWT Power Corporation had indicated that the minimum rates would remain the same, but the Minister made an even better announcement that there will be some reductions across the board in many communities. Can he explain if there is a communication strategy as a result of this announcement today that will go out to the communities and throughout the NWT? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this morning we had a technical briefing with the media. We will have a press conference this afternoon at two o’clock. We also will be attending the NWTAC meeting in Hay River where we will be doing further briefing of the communities. We will also be sending out information to all of the interveners and it includes all of the communities that participated in this process. Certainly, as we go forward, we will provide detailed information to our clientele. I think it’s also important to note that we will be working a lot closer with the utilities and they will also be providing information. As we go to implement the rates we will be using our PUB process, that’s the Public Utilities Board process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much. It is incredibly good news. I’m glad to see that work finally rolling out. Just in terms of my riding alone, Mr. Speaker, how would that communication strategy roll out to many of the small communities? Especially like Nahanni Butte, which the Minister had mentioned had one of the highest rates around. Will they be sending a package, as well, to all the smaller communities or just to all the communities? Thank you.
Thank you. We see that as part of our public education process. As well, utilizing the PUB process we’ll make sure that every community or municipality will have the basic information that will explain how these rate changes will be undertaken and, certainly, they’ll have an opportunity for input at that level as well. Thank you.
Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. These changes are huge. Maybe the Minister can tell me how many rate zones we’ll be reducing. I don’t know if he mentioned it in here at all. Then, of course, Mr. Speaker, one of my election... When I first got elected I always aimed to move towards a one-rate zone, but I see that at least we’re consolidating some zones. Maybe the Minister can explain that. Thank you.
Thank you. As the Member knows, up until this point we’ve been operating with 33 different rates for the Northwest Territories. What we are doing is we are moving to seven rate zones and on that basis we have simplified the system significantly. We’re also moving to territorial-wide rate riders so that in the interest of fairness, we have a more balanced approach with regard to costs. So on that basis we have simplified the system. We have also committed to working with those communities that have power provided by NUL so that we can work out similar arrangements there as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
