Debates of May 17, 2007 (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am nearing 12 years of service in this House going back to the last century and to pre-division along with a number of my colleagues here in this House.

---Laughter

It has been that long since people have talked about what we do with the surplus power at Taltson dam. Back then, Mr. Speaker, the price of fuel was probably about 35 cents a litre. There was a very dark time in the '90s when the economic circumstances and future of the Northwest Territories was very bleak. But over the years, the circumstances have changed and improved. For the last 10 years, we have had diamond mines start up in the North Slave and that growth has only continued. The attractiveness of the surplus power in Taltson has only grown with time. The price of oil is now $65 a barrel. It has reached even higher at times and it shows no signs of diminishing.

I want to stand here today and give my unequivocal support to the Taltson project. There has been a lot of work done. We spent years talking about it. In the last few years, we have actually moved into the planning and some of the implementation pieces that have to be put in place. We know that diamond mines have now been operating for 10 years, so time is of the essence, though I, like most others, am optimistic that development in the North Slave is only going to continue as more and more discoveries are made of the different resources that are there.

It is very important that we proceed with this process. We started today. It is a five-year project to be able to flick the switch and have power to the diamond mines. So we have to commit to this process. I would like to commend the Government of the Northwest Territories for their work on this, as well as the inclusion of the aboriginal partners into this process and project. I know, in my community, this is seen as a very important project. We don’t have oil and gas. We don’t have the diamonds. What we have is hydro and the Taltson and hydro on the Slave, and this particular Taltson project is very important to us. I fully support it. The Slave River potential hydro development clearly will require a lot more discussion for me to be convinced that that is the case for that project. But Taltson gets definitely a thumbs up. Thank you.

---Applause