Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement both yesterday and certainly today, I talked about why Yellowknife is number one and certainly the Northwest Territories is number one when it comes to power rates. I’d like to ask the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp what relief he can provide Northerners for power bills. It is well beyond the reach of the normal working family who struggles through this.
What immediate relief can he start doing, especially in the Yellowknife region where power bills are costing people everything? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A point of clarification, for a commercial customer using 2,000 kilowatts in a five-kilowatt demand in Iqaluit and Yellowknife, in Yellowknife the total bill would be $476.53 and in Iqaluit it would be $953.73. Yellowknife to Iqaluit is lower by $477.20. At the residential level, there is a significant subsidy provided to residential power users in Iqaluit versus Yellowknife. Our rates are higher than Whitehorse, but clearly when you look at Whitehorse, they have the majority of their population living very, very close to the city. They have road access to all their communities except one. They have a hydro plant right in the middle of the city, so they have different challenges than we do with 33 communities in 1.3 million square kilometres that we have to manage and provide services to.
So we’ve done a number of things to cushion the rates. We’ve put in almost $34 million to cushion the rate increases, because there had been no rate increases for five years. We’ve spent or we revised our rate structure to, in fact, provide greater relief to small communities where rates were as high as $2 a kilowatt hour. We’ve standardized the rates in the thermal zone and hydro zone.
So we’ve done a number of things and we’re working hard on additional things like liquid natural gas in Inuvik, the use of solar, we are going to work on combined heat and power as we proceed with biomass. So we have some very aggressive plans to bring down the cost of energy in the Northwest Territories.
The only thing the Minister didn’t do there is thank me for giving him such a platform or soapbox to provide a Minister’s statement to in defence.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister used, as a distracting technique, to start talking about commercial rates. I keep talking about residential rates for the working family. As I said, and the Minister did pick up that 1,000 kilowatts is more expensive in Yellowknife than it is in Iqaluit. It is certainly way more expensive, twice as expensive in Yellowknife versus Whitehorse.
What immediate relief can the Minister of the NWT Power Corp do? We engineer the community power rates; let’s do something for half our population. Here is your opportunity. I look forward to the Minister’s answer on that one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the opportunity to discuss these important matters in the House with the Member. It’s always an interesting discussion. I have laid out in my previous answer a significant amount of work that we’re doing on the issue of energy and providing a lower cost of affordable energy, not only to residents but to businesses. One of the things we are focusing on, of course, is conservation. We have any number of rebate programs to assist people to convert to energy-efficient appliances, biomass, all the things that will help them save money as they go forward and cut their use of power so that it will save them money.
I can’t be the only one noticing the Minister continues to not answer the question, which is: What immediate response can the Minister, through the department, through that government, do to help the immediate need that everyday Northerners need, which is relief on their power bills? This government wanted to help the cost of living for Northerners and this is something we can do. I will continue to launch question after question on this issue until he does something. What can he do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One second here. Sorry, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Hawkins, enough is enough. When you are told to ask the question, ask the question. Don’t drag it on. It’s not Members’ statement time. Mr. Miltenberger, now answer the question for Mr. Hawkins. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will choose my response carefully. In this House where there is sometimes political theatre, the demand for instant, quick fixes, silver bullets may play well on the airwaves, but the Member knows in his heart of hearts – he’s been in this Assembly for a considerable amount of time – that everything takes planning. It takes planning, it takes design, it takes resources, it takes consultation and we’ve been working on these improvements since the last Assembly and we are going to continue to do that. If the Member has a silver bullet that he wants to share with us that is not just putting unaffordable subsidies more than we’re already paying, I would be very happy to have that discussion with him, because we are very open-minded and looking for that type of constructive input. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, we need an answer to this question. Why are engineered power rates okay if you’re outside of Yellowknife but not in Yellowknife? It’s a question of fairness.
Everything about energy provision is engineered. It has to be engineered the proper way; it has to be engineered for efficiency for economy and for practicality. What we’ve done with the rate restructuring was to, in fact, bring a greater clarity, streamlining to the rate systems. Instead of 33 rate zones, we have two. We’ve pegged the rate of residential power across the North to the Yellowknife rate. Yellowknife has some challenges, but we have to keep in mind the whole Northwest Territories and these improvements have benefited all Northerners. Is there still work to do? Absolutely, which is why we’re talking about a five to seven hundred million dollar investment in hooking up the transmission lines to improve our ability to manage and provide electrical energy to our citizens. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
