Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are all painfully aware that we will have to swallow an increase to our power rates this winter. The Northwest Territories Power Corporation is the provider of power to most NWT communities, but it does not enable progress in the area of power generation for communities. It creates problems for us.
There is a fundamental problem with the mandate of the corporation and the regulatory regime it operates under. We’re bombarded with messages urging us to conserve energy, to do all possible to reduce consumption for the benefit of both the environment — the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions — and the consumer — less energy used equals lower electricity costs. I agree that we should be trying to conserve for both of these reasons.
But hold on. This logic is counterproductive if our power comes from the NTPC. The more we reduce our energy consumption, the less power we use. The less power we use, the more NTPC revenues drop. The more their revenues drop, the more riders they add to our bills. When NTPC cannot generate enough revenues to meet their expenditures, they ask for a rate increase or rate riders to make up for their lost revenue. And the bottom line is that the dollar figures they put on our power bills go up.
Where in this scenario, Mr. Speaker, is the incentive for any NWT homeowner to want to reduce energy consumption? Until we change this system, we can never get ahead. Either the environment will take a beating or our residents will take a beating, and lately it seems that we as residents are taking a worse beating.
Calculation of NWT power rates must be completely revamped with a view to fairness and equity, and I am glad to hear that there is something coming forward for us to respond to. Capital costs for upgrades to power generation in one community have to be applied to all communities across the territory, not just the individual community where the infrastructure is built.
NTPC itself must be renewed and reorganized. A culture of efficiency and effectiveness must be instilled. Cost saving has to be priority number one for this company, and there are lots of possibilities where savings can be found. The corporation can eliminate management bonuses, trim administrative fat and get creative with technology and innovation, for starters.
Only after NTPC has clearly demonstrated that all avenues for cost savings have been explored can it be allowed to consider power rate increases for its users. It is the duty of the Power Corp to do all it can to minimize the impact of power generation costs on the….
Ms. Bisaro, your time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is the duty of the Power Corporation to do all it can to minimize the impact of power generation costs on the average Joe or Jolene. I am, unfortunately, still waiting for that day.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Members’ Statement on
Reorganization of the Northern
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to respond to the Minister’s statement on some of the progressive energy initiatives that this government is showing, and I want to compliment them on that. I look forward to contributing to those further and to reviewing them through our climate change committee and so on.
But, Mr. Speaker, we really need to follow these initiatives within a context, and that context is: how did we get to this situation? We have an economy, a system of government, something here that has failed us and allowed this to become a critical situation. It’s not just here; it’s around the world. To me that tells us that we not only need to restructure some energy initiatives, but we need to restructure our economy and how we do business to improve the services to our people. For example, we need to pursue one that really is more concerned about our local economies, one that deals with our societal and environmental well-being and the opportunity for every individual to fulfill his or her potential.
We don’t want to just deal with these issues through subsidies and by shipping the cost onto government, obviously. What would a restructured economy look like? To me, we should know by now that as a basic environmental issue, we should be carbon neutral in all our development activities. This is entirely possible. I think we will be hearing more about that. We want to be increasing local self-sufficiency and skill levels. Again, there are many opportunities here. We need to see that basic needs — food, energy, shelter and so on — are provided increasingly through largely local production using regional resources.
Mr. Speaker, there are many opportunities for this sort of thing. I think that until we commit ourselves to restructuring our society and the way we pursue these initiatives, we won’t achieve our goals. We are going to be moving from crisis to crisis, as we are with our energy. Water, for example. We have a lot of serious concerns coming up. Our food and energy prices are going up. Our housing is going up. Our youth are crying out for leadership. Let’s provide it and do a comprehensive restructuring approach towards systems that actually work for our people.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
