Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In yesterday’s budget address the Minister of Finance made a very bold statement about the importance of lowering the cost of living to the access of lowering our power costs generated by hydro. He further referenced the need for an outside-the-box thinking to resolve this dilemma. You know, he’s very right; but does this government have the appetite to make the needed infrastructure investment to follow through with such a bold, motherly statement?
The NWT resident is facing unprecedented costs for living in the North, from high food prices to extreme travel costs to massive increases in their energy costs. I always wonder what truly keeps people wanting to live in the North with such a high living cost. That said, there is an outside-the-box project that could alleviate a large portion of this energy costing issue and immediately lower the cost of living. The answer is transmission lines.
The construction of a transmission line from the Taltson hydro plant via the South Slave through Hay River and connecting into the Alberta grid system would for the first time allow the full electrically capacity of the Taltson project. Think about it: Lower electricity prices for the South Slave, forfeiting the changeover of our government buildings to pellet boilers, and maybe the potential for export power to our southern neighbours. This would immediately affect all ratepayers, lower all the energy cost demands for the entire territory, wean us off our thirst for fossil fuels and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Now I know there are some naysayers out there that make reference that this cannot be done due to grading issues, NWT precipitation records, technology challenges and cost investment. I say to these people: Offer me a large-scale alternative that will have the same economic and tangible return on our investment and I think the answer is very clear.
So I say to this government: If you truly mean what you say in wanting to lower our cost of living and energy costs, then I would expect us to stop putting these bold statements into print. Let’s make the business case, let’s do the proper investment, and let’s leverage our support unilaterally to something we know that will have a direct impact to the bottom line of all taxpayers. Let’s stop penalizing our residents with continued rate increases and energy costs and let’s start generating the millions of dollars transmission lines could offer.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
