Good afternoon, colleagues.
Before we begin, today my constituent Persis Gruben turns 96 years old in my hometown of Tuktoyaktuk.
---Applause
Persis’ mind is very sharp and she’s still an active member of the community. I can only imagine the changes she’s seen throughout her lifetime, from dog teams to snowmobiles, umiaks to powered boats, and telephones to cell phones. Like most small communities in the NWT, we are subsistence harvesters, and to have her knowledge of the land, culture and language is remarkable. Persis is an inspiration to our community and we are very blessed to have her.
Persis, happy birthday. We’re wishing you many more, and God bless you and your family for the day.
Mr. Speaker, small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our community and regional economies.
To encourage economic diversity and sustainability, the Government of the Northwest Territories has long supported the interests and growth of this highly valued segment of the North’s economic community through a variety of programs and services.
As we mark Small Business Week this year, the GNWT is moving forward with the implementation of its NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy. This
strategy offers a plan to expand and diversify the NWT economy outside of its rich resource sector in areas such as agriculture, tourism, fishing, manufacturing and the traditional economies.
Later today I will be tabling the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy Implementation Plan that maps out the priorities, methods and resources to address the strategy’s 117 recommended actions.
It reflects, in part, our commitment to improve supports to NWT businesses and to grow a stable and attractive entrepreneurial environment.
The work of ITI, along with our partners, has confirmed that there are great opportunities for us to balance and diversify our economy in all regions and in all sectors. Our partners, including the NWT Chamber of Commerce, the NWT Association of Communities, the Northern Aboriginal Business Association, and Canada’s Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor), will be integral as we work to implement the strategy’s recommendations.
The engagement process that informed the Economic Opportunities Strategy also offered valuable insights into how we deliver business support programs and services. We are now addressing many of the challenges and barriers that were identified, and acting on the initiatives and ideas that were identified.
We are addressing issues of red tape. Our planned actions on 11 of the recommendations identified in the NWT Economic Opportunities Strategy are designed to better target, streamline and coordinate government programs and services.
We are also finding ways to better target government resources and funding to realize identified regional priorities, to do a better job of promoting and marketing programs and services that are available through government to support NWT businesses, and to deliver more of our information and services online.
Though this strategy is in its early days, we are already seeing its benefits.
Our destination marketing organization, NWT Tourism, is operating the newly established Conference Bureau, which was a recommendation of the strategy. The Conference Bureau better positions this territory to attract more business travellers and provide spin-off benefits for transportation suppliers, hotels, restaurants, artisans and tour operators.
The Economic Opportunities Strategy also recommended working to expand the export and domestic market of Great Slave Lake fish. With industry feedback, we have created a new brand, point of purchase materials, packaging, and promotional items for producers and retailers to help market the NWT’s fresh fish product. We are also proposing $1.5 million in 2015-16 and will be looking for partners to replace the fishing industry’s outdated federal infrastructure and to generate new capital to stimulate an era of self-sufficiency for our commercial fishing industry.
Economic diversity and sustainability is, foremost, reliant on a competitive business environment in which NWT residents have the tools to invest, overcome challenges and prosper.
On April 1st the Business Development and Investment Corporation will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Over the last decade the BDIC has been serving small businesses across the NWT, offering loans, grants, business information and support.
In the coming years the BDIC will spearhead a number of services to further assist small businesses. Initiatives include developing a framework that will connect NWT businesses with opportunities around the globe and expanding its small business training and counselling services. These services will provide small businesses with national and cross-border networking, trade opportunities and business mentorship.
Through the evolution of business support programs and services, ITI and the BDIC will continue to excel as essential resources for economic development in the NWT.
The responsibility of developing a competitive economic environment belongs to us all as we work to achieve our goal of a diversified economy that provides all communities with opportunities and choices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, it has been a challenging summer for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. During this past summer the Taltson hydroelectric plant and the transmission lines between the Snare plants and Yellowknife were threatened by forest fires. Fortunately, all major infrastructure was preserved; however, these same fires were responsible for half of the power outages experienced on the Snare system.
The same drought conditions that contributed to this being one of the worst forest fires years in history is also responsible for low water on the Snare system. Water levels at Snare are at a 64-year low and prompted the corporation to apply for a 3.7 cent rate rider to cover the additional 16 million litres of fuel it anticipates burning up until June 2015 at a cost of about $20 million. This government recognized that customers could not afford an increase in power costs and agreed to cover this unavoidable expense.
Mr. Speaker, the corporation recognizes the current way of operating is no longer sustainable; rates have reached their limit of affordability. What occurred this past summer, while an environmental anomaly, has been a catalyst that has initiated serious discussion on potentially game-changing direction and focus.
We look forward to the upcoming Energy Charrette as it will provide direction and guidance for the future of power generation in the territory. NTPC and the Government of Northwest Territories are open and willing to consider any generation option that is sustainable and reliable and that does not increase the cost of power to the customer.
In addition to a new direction, this government also needs to look at what it can do to invest in infrastructure to keep power affordable. While an interconnecting transmission grid, both within the territory and to the southern grid, is still a long-term goal, it is not attainable in the short or medium term. Instead, this government and NTPC will continue to work together to investigate, research and test alternative options that will lower the cost of generating power, reduce dependence on diesel, especially in the thermal communities, and that will potentially create opportunities for economic development in the process.
The ongoing collaboration between the corporation and this government is a great improvement and is continually strengthened through projects like heat sales in the South Slave region. GNWT and South Slave towns will be offered surplus energy from the Taltson system at reduced rates with all revenues going to support conservation efforts and renewable energy projects.
Mr. Speaker, NTPC has made inroads in alternative energy and conservation this year. Construction of the solar farm in Colville Lake started in August with completion expected this month; more than 800 of the thermal zone’s 2,000 streetlights have been converted to LED, and the Net Metering Program was launched in April, giving residents the opportunity to install alternative power generation systems on their property and receive credit for power they produce. This is just a sample of the work being done. More information will be available on the “Energy Alternatives” section of NTPC’s website in the coming days.
Conservation as our lowest cost alternative to building additional generation is an important area of focus for NTPC. The corporation is working at developing an extensive conservation section to their website as a first step in informing customers about the way they presently consume electricity and how they can be more efficient with energy use. Beyond their website, NTPC will also be sending out conservation information with customer bills along with running a conservation campaign later this fall.
Mr. Speaker, the corporation continues to build capacity in the territory through its hiring local people into apprenticeships and this year has hired an additional three Northerners in positions where they are developing skills on the job and have full-time employment.
As we move into the last year of this government’s mandate, it is important to keep moving forward, making thoughtful, educated decisions that are in the long-term best interest of the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a vision of a strong, prosperous North. We know that creating this North starts with healthy, safe communities where people can prosper, free from the fear of violence.
October 5 to 11, 2014, was the 14th Annual Family Violence Awareness Week. There were several events held across the Northwest Territories to bring attention to the serious ongoing problem we have with family violence among our residents. These events included a radio phone-in show in Fort Good Hope, school presentations with elders and youth in Tuktoyaktuk, workshops on the Hay River Reserve, four events in Fort Liard, including a community potluck, Fort Simpson high school students decorated and displayed anti-violence T-shirts and Inuvik held a scavenger hunt and barbeque. I want to congratulate all the communities who participated in these and other activities.
Northwest Territories Family Violence Awareness Week draws attention to the issue of domestic violence and encourages residents to stand together to stop the violence. This year's focus was on the bystander in family violence: co-workers, friends, family members and neighbours.
This is challenging, Mr. Speaker. How do individuals and government respond to what is often viewed as a private family matter or a matter for the police? I believe the role of government is to provide programs and supports to help prevent family violence and treat its impacts and to also demonstrate leadership.
The Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Justice provide many of the programs and services our residents need to prevent and to deal with family violence. Their work is often guided by the advice and input from the Coalition Against Family Violence. Members will recall that the coalition is a multi-agency group working collectively to reduce the incidence of and to more effectively respond to family violence in the Northwest Territories.
It has been through the work of the coalition that many of the more innovative approaches to addressing family violence have been developed, including emergency protection orders and the men’s healing program. I want to thank all members of the coalition for their ongoing commitment and dedication, in particular the Status of Women Council, which chairs and provides administration for the coalition.
Government leaders also have a role in stopping family violence. Earlier this month I met with the Northwest Territories Metis Nation and with the Tlicho Government. We discussed the impact family violence has on our communities and how we need to demonstrate leadership and take a stand against family violence as governments.
The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to stopping family violence. It is a serious problem that impacts all Northerners, and I will continue to raise this issue with all of our Aboriginal government partners in the weeks and months ahead.
We are all affected by family violence, which means we all have an interest in stopping it. By working together with the Coalition Against Family Violence, with our Aboriginal government partners and with communities, the Government of the Northwest Territories is dedicated to improving the safety, security and well-being of all of our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In August Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in the South Slave to announce new funding for northern agriculture. The Prime Minister announced $2 million in funding to help establish a permanent campus for the Northern Farm Training Initiative in Hay River – in Hay River, I like the sound of that – and up to $2 million to launch the Northern Greenhouse Initiative.
The Territorial Farmers Association has been working on a permanent campus for the Northern Farm Training Initiative since 2012. The association has operated market gardens, built greenhouses and found innovative ways to enhance agriculture in the North for the last 40 years. The new facility will help deliver agricultural training especially designed to meet the needs of our communities. Construction is planned starting 2015.
Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in farming, greenhouse technology and raising livestock and take the information they glean back to their communities. They will also be able to sell flowers and produce from the campus.
Another part of the Prime Minister’s announcement: the Northern Greenhouse Initiative will support the development of commercial greenhouses and ways to enhance the productivity of existing greenhouses throughout the North.
The Northern Farm Training Initiative will be at the sight of AgNorth, a pilot project in agricultural technology that utilizes specialized LED lighting and hydroponics to grow produce indoors year round.
Proliferation of community gardens and the increasing number of people finding creative ways to build greenhouses into their lives and homes are evidence of a growing interest in agriculture in the North. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment is developing an Agriculture Strategy.
With the recent announcement of training, technology and much appreciated capital this past August, we are sure to reap the rewards going forward. Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not mention the untiring efforts of a couple of young ladies in our community: Kim Rapati, who’s involved in the Territorial Farmers Association, and also Jackie Milne. If you’ve met Jackie and talked agriculture, you’re not likely to forget her any time soon. I’d like to thank them for their tireless efforts, which I believe played a part in bringing this program to fruition. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. It continues to be a rough ride down Highway No. 7. Kilometres 0 to 20 were scheduled to be chipsealed this summer, and the contract went out to a southern company. The Department of Transportation told me it had done its due diligence and assured me that Fort Liard and other Northerners would still receive some benefit, even though this contract went south.
In order to secure the contract, the BC company provided certain assurances as to their intention to use services from two northern companies out of Fort Liard. My constituents inform me that this did not occur at all. To date, only one person was hired from the community of Fort Liard; none of the local businesses have seen any economic benefits flowing from this contract award. When we give out contracts to southern companies, we lose important taxation benefits like personal income taxes and fuel taxes that can be flowed back to the Northwest Territories. Also, the community, the whole community, the leadership wanted this contract negotiated, but once again, DOT did not allow that to happen.
Negotiated contracts are designed to help our communities to be sustainable, give them a foot up and to give them work where there’s no work to be had.
Also, when southern contractors make promises, we simply must be doing the weekly checks to ensure that these contractors are fulfilling their obligations to the community and northern businesses, not just saying they are and promise the world and do things differently once the contract is signed.
This seems to happen time and time again in the North, and we must stop. We may not be able to prevent vehicles from breaking down on this infamous highway, but this is the kind of breakdown we can’t even blame on permafrost.
I strongly recommend that this government carefully monitor contracting practices, especially when it comes to southern companies. We want to do business in the North and build capacity for local businesses. Thank you very much. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been a busy summer and fall in the Sahtu, from the youth hand games tournament to the retired NHL stars Rob Niedermayer and Brendan Morrison dropping by Deline for some world-class fishing and visiting the birthplace of ice hockey in Canada. It was another successful summer with our ninth annual Canol youth leadership hike. Our Dene and Metis leaders came together and held successful meetings across the Sahtu, including the SSI AGM in Fort Good Hope and recently last week in Deline with our regional Economic Strategy workshop.
Our rivers and mountains are busy places this fall with families out on the land looking to fill their freezers with moose, lots of moose, lots of caribou and plenty of fish.
Today I want to take a moment to reflect on the lives of the people we have lost in the Sahtu since the last time we gathered in this Assembly. We have lost people from all age groups, some who contributed over several generations and some who have left us way too early, such as the late Faye Kara Grandjambe and the pilot, Mitchell St. Germain, two young people, one born in the Sahtu and one starting a career in aviation in our region.
Our region is rich in culture and spirituality. We rally around each other and come together to honour these lives, young and old. I want to thank everyone in our communities who come together to help at community feasts and support the families who’ve lost loved ones this summer and this fall. I also want to ask Members of this House and people across the Northwest Territories to continue to offer prayers and thoughts for those who are here in Stanton Hospital and who are people who may be in between medical treatments here and in Alberta. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Cancer is a word we hear all too often. Whether we’re just more aware of why people are getting sick now or whether there actually is more cancer amongst our people, it is ever present in our lives and none of us here in this room or elsewhere in our territory, none of us have remained untouched by cancer. It’s a scary business being diagnosed with cancer, and patients are often left to their own devices after a diagnosis.
Over the years, volunteers with the NWT Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group have worked very hard to provide supports for breast cancer patients. One of the programs put in place and funded by them was a position at Stanton Territorial Hospital called patient navigator. For a number of reasons that position became vacant, and it has remained vacant for several years now. The one position identified to assist patients with navigation through the health system after a breast cancer diagnosis has been left unfilled.
Of course, it’s the patients who suffer the consequences the most. At a point when patients and families are facing the biggest challenge of their lives, they’re left to navigate and manage the system without assistance.
In the spring of 2014, the NWT Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group published a report. It was the findings of research from 2013, with recommendations to, as they put it, improve the breast cancer journey. There are 18 recommendations in their report and all 18 are clear and timely.
One recommendation, number eight in particular, states, “establish regional cancer care coordinator and breast cancer system navigator positions. Cancer care coordinators will be health care professionals who will coordinate a patient’s cancer treatment and after-care. System navigators may be laypeople who understand and can help patients navigate the breast cancer pathway, respond to questions and act as the support person for the patient and her family.” I could not agree more.
Yet the one navigator position in whole of the NWT remains empty, and from what I can tell, it is being re-profiled to a coordinator position, a position further removed from patient care than a navigator.
At this time, cancer patients are diagnosed without the vital medical, emotional and personal support a navigator can provide…
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Not only do the breast cancer patients need a cancer system navigator but patients diagnosed with any kind of cancer need the special help a navigator can provide. Staffing the one position we’ve identified should be a top priority. The Minister of Health and Social Services must find a way to ensure that all cancer patients get the support they need immediately after diagnosis.
I will have questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been here for three years and I’m going to continue to dwell on the issue that Hay River needs dredging. The community of Hay River is the hub of the North. We do a lot of transportation; we have a railhead there. We’ve been asking for many years to get dredging in the Hay River.
It used to be a federal responsibility. We’ve been talking, I’ve been talking, my colleagues have been talking about dredging requirements. This year has been extremely low. As everybody knows, water levels are low everywhere, but now it is a critical situation.
Now we need our government to go to the federal government to get the money for dredging. We know it’s a federal responsibility. Our government has told us that several times, but we’ve been trying to encourage the government to find ways, get a cost analysis, figure exactly what we’ve got. The government is handing out money everywhere else, $20 million here, $10 million there, $40 million there.
We need dredging in the Hay River now. Not soon, not later, now.
I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation. I know he’s had meetings with the federal Minister this summer. Was dredging of the Hay River on that agenda? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of us agree that all Canadians should have the options of elders living in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. This basic strategy will help reduce the needs for facilities, will lessen the impact on our health system, improve service integration and ultimately enhance our seniors’ quality of life.
In keeping in this context, Our Elders, Our Communities was a report tabled in this House on June 2, 2014, by the Minister of Health and Social Services. Upon reflection, many Members suspected this was a preliminary framework for the government’s Aging in Place action plan, which was based on the recent Continuing Care Review.
Unfortunately, this recently tabled report lists a framework for a number of recommended actions, yet again, what we’ve come to expect from the Department of Health and Social Services, this report, shamefully, does not include any specific targets or timelines.
Well, I’m sure everyone in this room will agree that Aging in Place strategies will no doubt offset some of the demand for long-term care beds in the NWT. We need to strongly ask, what is the government’s plan to ensure enough beds will be available when this territory reaches this critical phase? How critical, you ask. Well, let me tell you. The recent Continuing Care Review predicted that in the next 15 years the NWT will need, at a minimum, an additional 200 long-term care beds and over 60 dementia care beds.
With very little dedicated in this current infrastructure budget and with no targets or timelines for this new Aging in Place strategy, I ask again, to this government, to this Department of Health and to its Minister: Where is the real commitment to our elders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment opened up his comments today, mentioning that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our community and regional economies. It is no more prevalent than in the community of Inuvik. It is getting to that time of year again when the Peel River and the Mackenzie River start to freeze up and it starts putting a little bit of a delay and backlog into the delivery of goods and services up into the Beaufort-Delta regional centre and into the communities.
Today I want to talk about small business, especially in the community of Inuvik, during those freeze-up and breakup times with the ferry operations. Speaking to some of the business owners in Inuvik, there was a concern, and a growing concern, of the ferry operations up in the Beaufort-Delta region during the freeze-up and the breakup, and I do understand that the amount of days that the ferry wasn’t in operation was less than if we waited for the ice road to go in or if we waited for the breakup to happen; however, a ferry in the middle of the river moving at a snail’s pace doesn’t mean it is operating. There are a lot of businesses that said, during the ferry operations they were waiting for the goods while it was on the other side of the river, and basing their orders on the fact that we were supposed to have the ferry operations open for a longer period of time.
Today I want to talk about how we help our businesses in Inuvik. How is the Department of Transportation going to communicate some of this information in terms of the ferry operation, because of the time it is going to get the trucks and the vehicles across the ice crossings so that we get the services and the goods on the shelves in our stores and the services into the community?
There are a few issues that are raised here, and I will have questions for the Minister of Transportation. But like I mentioned, these businesses are integral to the local economy, to the region, and I feel like we need to have their support there for our small businesses, so that they can continue to operate and they can continue to make the revenue that they need to pay the bills and continue to provide the services up in the community of Inuvik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Indian and Residential School Supplement has been in effect for the better part of a decade. The supplement has five components, including the common experience payments, intending to recognize the harmful impact of the residential school experience. A total of $1.9 billion were allocated for common experience payments.
In the Northwest Territories, 5,000 people received these one-time lump sum payouts. The average payout is about $20,000. Although the formal common experience payment process ended two years ago, $40 million remains in the pot, so the federal government announced an extension of sorts, offering a one-time personal credit of up to $3,000 to anyone who already qualified for a common experience payment. The credit can be used for a range of educational activities: for programs at university, college or trade school, or for activities that build knowledge about Aboriginal culture. People can transfer these personal credits to family members, or pool them to develop programs that promote traditional knowledge.
The 2013 Minister’s Forum on Addictions called for more on-the-land programs to help with healing, and along with Mr. Paul Andrew, who chaired the Minister’s Forum, encouraged people to pool their credits together and use the money to benefit the entire community. For example, the pooled money can be used to pay elders, facilitators and camp assistants. It can be put forth for food, cooking supplies, camp equipment, books, art supplies or office technology. The application deadline is October 31st and the chosen school or organization has until December 1st of this year to redeem the credit.
These deadlines are fast approaching, but there is still time to collectively join elders out on the land and get that education going. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use my Member’s statement to talk about the facts, so here they are: In 2009 the NWT Community Housing Survey said that 19 percent of Northerners are in core need of housing. What matters little more than your health and your family than housing? Everything starts at home. While we continue to talk about revitalizing our declining population here in the Northwest Territories, we have communities suffering the negative effects of population leaving. But where do we start? Well, if there are no places to access housing, be it in Yellowknife, be it Paulatuk, be it Fort Good Hope, what do people do? People move to larger centres. What happens there? Their communities get smaller. Connect the dots – I hope the Finance Minister is – we have a declining population.
How do we get a teacher in a community that has no housing options? We’ve heard that complaint in Liard. We’ve heard that complaint in other small towns. How do we get a tradesperson in Norman Wells because they have nowhere to live? What about Tuktoyaktuk? What about even sometimes in Inuvik? These are real issues.
While this government continues to curl itself up with pipe dreams or focus in on its individual mining or fracking projects, it continues to forget about what matters to Northerners. We have to start at home. That’s where family is built and that is certainly where opportunities are built. In my view, what matters more than that? We want healthy families. We want housing options. They help families to be happy. They will have a better outlook. There have been many studies and many discussions over the years about family violence declines when suitable housing is there for people. These are all things that should be heralded by this government as job number one, but, again, focused in on the pipe dreams, mines and fracking, and other opportunities.
When they say they’re open for business, I ask, where? Because no business will come if they’ve got nowhere to live. I’ve heard from many people across the territory that they’d like to go to a small community but they don’t have the options. If you look at the average of this government right now, as I see in some scribbled notes in the backrooms, I see they’re going to implement less than one house, new house, across every community across the Northwest Territories.
What I’m saying is we have 33 communities in this territory, and we’re putting less than 33 new housing options on the ground in the North. Can we do better? I think we could do a lot better, because if we want to grow our population, as our Finance Minister says, if we want to get more investment from corporate and personal income tax, we’ve got to have people here, and those are the people who will help revitalize our North. Let’s get it done.
I’ll have questions, certainly, for the Minister of Housing to find out what he’s going to do.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s now been a year and a half since the largest flood in the Mackenzie Delta in the last 10 years. At that time, about 15 families had their camps flood. There were even cabins that floated down the Peel River. To this day, only two people were provided compensation.
One of the policies for the application is the applicant must make 25 percent of their yearly earnings harvesting off the land. Many of my constituents do not sell what they harvest off the land because they share what they harvest with family, friends, and also barter with others, which has been our tradition for many years.
This is a growing concern in our communities, and I will be raising questions for the Minister later today.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For years this government has professed support for renewable energy and concern about cost of living. While enjoying reduced costs from converting our own infrastructure to renewables, we’ve hung communities out to dry. Soaring power costs to ratepayers and drains on tax revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies have been the result.
A sad case in point was the Fort Liard Geothermal Project. The Fort Liard Geothermal Project was led by private developer, Borealis GeoPower in partnership with the Acho Dene Koe First Nation of Fort Liard. The federal role was a commitment of $7.9 million, provided that investors could be found to finance the other half.
A third-party review confirmed that the project was technically feasible. Feasibility was again confirmed when the company rigorously and successfully met every regulatory and financial obligation required for a Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board permit in less than a year. Based on this, a line-up of investors was prepared to fund the other 50 percent of the project, requiring only the customary power purchase agreement from our 100 percent owned Power Corporation.
NTPC and GNWT were aware of the timing and of the existence of the sunset clauses related to the federal funding as well as subsequent timelines required to confirm investment. As a result of NTPC’s procrastination and failure to provide the signed power purchase agreement needed, the federal funding lapsed and the Fort Liard Geothermal Project folded.
To be clear, what was lost here was a 20-year contract for power to be provided at one-half to two-thirds of the cost of the day, a huge savings to the people of Liard, to the NWT power system and to the environment and the loss of local jobs that were to be generated. This travesty was the result of a philosophy of monopoly for power generation and distribution in the Northwest Territories for NTPC with an endorsement by this government, leaving accelerating costs of power accruing to the public.
Is this government serious about exploring renewable energy sources for community benefit, as opposed to just our own government benefit? Where was the direction to this wholly owned corporation to provide a timely power purchase agreement?
Clearly, and shamefully, despite backing by the community, by regulators and investors, by the federal government, the buck stopped with us and we failed our people. How often has this happened across the NWT before without it being profiled in the House? What other opportunities to actually reduce cost have we passed over, choosing instead to remove motivations and spend our millions on hollow subsidies while costs soar?
Borealis Geothermal remains convinced of this project’s feasibility and committed to the Liard project and claims investors are still interested, even without the federal subsidy. Does this government have what it takes to pursue this opportunity?
I will have questions. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize and welcome from the Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories, Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director; Annemieke Mulders, programs and research manager; Samantha Thomas, community development coordinator. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m very happy to recognize my partner, Lucyanne Kendo, in the gallery this week, and also my stepdaughter, Brittany Jewel, who’s showing off her haircut to the whole of the Northwest Territories today. Welcome.
Mr. Hawkins.
