Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of the Power Corporation. In my Member’s statement today, the community of Ulukhaktok on October 4th and 5th had 20 households with no power, including the airport. Nunakput at this time of the year on the coastline communities, there is fog and freezing rain. I am just wondering if the Minister could speak to the Power Corporation to see if we could send crews into the communities that they represent to clear the ice off of the lines. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for that question on the Power Corporation. It was unfortunate the incidents that occurred there, and the power being out for as long as it was and the weather affecting the crews from getting into that community. We must, as the Member has stated, ensure that the community pull together in a very solid way, and a successful way, and ensuring people manage to get power to their homes and keep their homes heated. We thank the community for pulling together on that.
The Power Corporation, on the issue of the outages that have occurred both in Ulukhaktok and in Inuvik, for example, I have spoken to the board and they are getting me some additional information as well as looking at the recruitment process to come up with some plans on their maintenance structures. I will have to talk to them about that as they go forward. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for that reply. I am just wondering if we could set up a backup system for each community on the coast, and in Inuvik as well, or making sure that when the power goes out in the middle of winter when it is 40 below and you have a blizzard, it is usually for three days. We have some sort of system in there that we could... What could you do to make it happen in regard to having a safe system that we could rely on?
Mr. Speaker, all the work that the Power Corporation does in trying to provide a reliable service to the communities does include a level of redundancy, and that is in the generators, or Gen Set as we call them in the communities, so that there is backup.
The problem becomes more so an issue when we talk about our lines and transformers and so on. They have equipment that they could replace, but it is a matter of getting people into our most remote communities when something does occur like that and we try to marshal the crews to get out as soon as weather permits in some cases to, in fact, restore that power. We do have redundancy. The issue becomes, for example, around power lines, transformers, those areas where there are some problems that do occur. I will get additional information on the level of redundancy and the cost of that as well. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, for the maintenance program in regards to the low outlying communities, is there one in place for the summer months or for the communities?
Mr. Speaker, I need some clarification on that. Is there a backup system in place over the summer months? We do have, for example, Gen Sets that are available and we move them in from time to time where they are needed in our communities where there are major outages and major breakdowns. Again, that is marshalled up at the time when we have them set up so that we can move them throughout the Territory. Again, for more specific on what area of backup the Member is looking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The maintenance program that I am referring to is just like going in there in the communities in the summer making sure the lines are connected properly to the poles, making sure they are grounded out in high wind areas, and seeing if we could also get local qualified people in the communities that represent the Power Corporation being able to fix these situations that we know that happen periodically in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I will get the maintenance schedule for our communities and provide that to Members. I know in our work we do, when we are replacing some capital components, that they do have a schedule for our communities. I will get that information for Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
