Debates of May 19, 2011 (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the Hydro Strategy and I’m certainly curious, at the very least, as to where the direction is now going with this strategy seeing as there has been a bit of setback with the Taltson expansion as well other issues such as the Bluefish needs almost $40 million investment.

Mr. Speaker, I look to the Premier for some guidance for the House as well as for the public as to where the Hydro Strategy is taking us from this present position as the direction towards the future, noting the concerns I highlighted. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Hydro Strategy is one that encompasses the whole of the Northwest Territories. The Taltson is a piece of it, Bluefish and others. We’re looking at new areas of development. NT Hydro is working on their portion. We’ve been funding this work through the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee. NT Hydro, for its part, is working in partnership, for example, with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to evaluate the hydro potential at Beaulieu River, and initial reporting we’re hoping will be completed this spring.

We’ve also hired a firm to help with the land corporations and municipal governments in Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Tulita to engage in gathering traditional knowledge on sites of hydro potential. As well, there will be some work done on the Willow or Brackett River near the community of Tulita. Recently it was done there. They’re screening a report there.

Looking at, as well, working with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the work around, for example, the Sahtu land use plan, dealing with some of the hydro concerns or issues there. As well as looking at the multi-year fisheries, environmental and traditional knowledge study of the Great Bear River. As well as dealing with the feasibility of the Fort Liard geothermal, and of course, on the Mackenzie River with the Run-of-the-River Program that we started there last year and continuing this summer. We’re pulling that information together in the hopes that we will be able to have a renewed Hydro Strategy to be able to bring forward. I don’t have a timeline on that, though, as of yet. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the cost of living is a very important issue for me as well as many Members, and I believe that any strides we can make towards the cost of living of Northerners does great things for the, I hate to say it, but the kitchen table economics for the everyday person, and power is a critical component of the cost of living here.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to hear from the Premier as to what focus his direction has provided towards grid expansion or coordination of the territorial power being produced here in the North thus far. Perhaps with the work done on the Taltson to date could lend itself towards building a focus and a mandate towards that type of potential. Does the Premier have a comment or some aspects he’d like to lay before the House? Thank you.

The work that we have done around the Hydro Strategy and, more specifically, on the Taltson, as the information has become available, it’s caused us to have another look at how we would continue with the work that’s been done on Taltson, looking at the grid connections here in the Northwest Territories as well as to southern potential customer base that is there. We know that Alberta is going through quite a process of having to remove its coal generation, so there’s a potentially large client there.

One of the meetings I’ve had with the chair of the corporation, and he shared this with the board, is that we need to look at the work that we’ve done on the Taltson to see how we can expand that work now, is there an economic base to look at the grid connection here in the NWT with a grid connection to southern Canada. It is also an issue that we raise numerous times when we meet with whether it’s western Premiers or the Council of Federation, where they talk about an east/west grid. We also remind them there needs to be a north/south grid. So we continue to work along those ways to see how we can continue to grow that potential.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Premier for that particular answer. Mr. Speaker, the potential of southern customers such as Alberta I think is a great area that this Power Corporation should explore, because I think that Alberta has a significant demand of power and we certainly have a pent-up demand of clean energy that we could be selling them that could help sustain our pocketbooks or territorial purse for many years to come.

Mr. Speaker, if it was done wisely, we would have our own Churchill Fall example where Newfoundland provides cheap power…

Do you have a question, Mr. Hawkins?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. But let’s hope it would be affordable.

Mr. Speaker, has there been any work done on that aspect to become a direct exporter of power to Alberta? Thank you.

We have, as I was just saying, had a discussion with the chair of the Power Corporation, and through that board and the NT Hydro Corporation looking at the grid connections and if there’s an economic base for that, that work is starting to be reviewed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Have any customers been identified for that type of potential partnership and does the Premier see an opening to work with the federal government to work with Alberta to create ourselves as the customer of choice, or I should say provider of choice to the province of Alberta, considering their need for clean energy that the Northwest Territories has a lot of? Thank you.

Again, as I was saying earlier, we are aware that Alberta is going through a number of critical changes in its power generation moving away from coal-fired generation, having to replace it with either natural gas generation or clean hydro as a potential. We know that there are opportunities available. We have had that initial discussion to begin looking at that to see if there’s an economic base there where we can open that up, and that would also help us with our industry side here in the North when it comes to anchor tenants.

If there’s that grid connection, that means at times when they don’t need the peak, they can sell power that they purchase from us, as well, in that grid. We’re looking at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.