Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use this opportunity to clear some of the air and we’ll call up this ATCO concerned problem about their ads and even some of the innuendos where they’re bemoaning on the street that they’re being muscled out of the Northwest Territories.
Frankly, let’s just put it on the table. I have questions for the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
I want to ask clearly this: Is there any mandate by this Cabinet or certainly this Minister in any way to attempt to run ATCO out of Hay River or the Northwest Territories? We need to clear this up first.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The interest of the NWT Power Corporation is very clear that on Monday the Town of Hay River passed a motion to initiate a public process for the renewal of their franchise, and we have indicated that we would take part in that public process. There is no broader issue other than that. I am aware of some of the concerns and angst and heartburn in different areas, in corporations, in board rooms and some of the Members of this House, but they are unfounded and ill-founded.
When was the last time the Northwest Territories Power Corporation put a competitive bid in the Town of Hay River for the Hay River franchise? What would be helpful here to understand is how long each franchise agreement is put into place. It is my understanding that it has been years since the last one that the Northwest Territories actually fully competed in, because, as I understand it, they fully withdrew from the last process they may have been considering to be involved in.
If my memory serves me correctly, it was during the life of the 15th Assembly there was a renewal process, and at that point there was some talk of the Power Corporation putting forward a proposal for that franchise. But at the end of the day, the government of the day instructed the Power Corporation not to proceed.
I think, actually, the official record should note it’s probably the 14th Assembly that has that credit from withdrawing from that particular competitive process.
That actually now leads perfectly into my third question, which is: Who directed the NWT Power Corporation to withdraw from fully competing in the competitive process for the Hay River franchise agreement – a tough word to say today – and was it politically motivated or was it done through any other reason, because they withdrew in that day?
Mr. Hawkins, asking questions of previous governments, it has already been said. Could you restate your question to the Minister?
That’s okay, Mr. Speaker. I think I have already sort of stated my issue for the record. I will go to the next question with no problem. Thanks for your guidance, Mr. Speaker.
Is there any reason that ATCO, the billion dollar company we talked about earlier today, could not bid on the upcoming Hay River franchise agreement? Thank you.
I will limit my comments to making the observation that it’s a public process and I understand that the Town of Hay River has sent copies of the RFP to both ourselves, the Power Corporation, and to ATCO. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe we should just get down to the nitty-gritty here. Has the actual RFP been called for by the Town of Hay River, and if so, is the Minister aware when the NWT Power Corporation will be submitting a bid for this particular process? Lastly, on the same point, how long does the cycle for review of this process take? Thank you.
I understand the process is now open and will remain open until the end of June or the very first part of July. We anticipate that the Town of Hay River intends to move very quickly in terms of evaluating whoever submits bids and picking a successful proponent. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seeing as how we just did an induction into the Education Hall of Fame, I am going to have some questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in regards to some of the Education Renewal and Innovation Strategy that his department has undertaken over the last few months.
Mainly in terms of the funding formula, I know there were discussions about how we fund our education authorities and I would like to ask the Minister, at what stage are we in finalizing and working on this new funding formula on how we finance our education authorities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The new formula framework that we were discussing with the standing committee a couple of days ago, it is at a stage of going through the final stages. We’re at the point of finalizing that in the fall of this year, 2015, and obviously that will be going to Cabinet and going to the standing committee once we go through the process.
The formula funding framework has not been changed for the past 25 years, the contribution that we give to the education school boards. This is the work that has been ongoing for a number of years now. Now we are at the final stages. In the fall of 2015 it will be available. Thank you.
I am glad to hear that the Minister has mentioned that over the last 25 years we have been funding our schools and education authorities across the Northwest Territories the same way we have for 25 years and we’re actually making changes now.
Can I ask the Minister, are we going to be seeing increases in some of the funding that we are giving to the schools and the authorities, and where are we going to see the most significant increases? Thank you.
Part of the process is to identify where the changes should be happening with the $150 million we distribute throughout the Northwest Territories, and we should be doing things differently. That’s what we’re focusing on. So, we have been working with the school boards on this particular matter. This is an ongoing document that we’re still working with. As I stated, it will be available this fall, 2015, and it will be ready to be rolled out in 2016-17. Mahsi.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in developing this formula funding for the education authorities, were the actuals in the budgets of our schools and our authorities taken into consideration when we were developing this formula funding so that the schools actually get funding that will offset what they are spending each year?
Have the actuals been taken into consideration when we’re developing this formula funding?
Yes, those discussions have been initiated by both parties, my department and also the school board superintendents. The actuals have been discussed, and not only that but based on the needs of our school operations. So, those are the discussions that we’ve been having with the school boards. So, yes, the actual is part of the discussion that we’ve had. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know, as I mentioned and I’ve said in the House before, that the cost of travel and the cost of doing business in the Beaufort-Delta is a lot higher than it is in other regions across the Northwest Territories mainly because of the high costs of travelling between some of the coastal communities and the community of Inuvik, and also the high costs of food. I know in our Education Renewal and Innovation Strategy that we’re developing, we’re putting new food and breakfast programs into place and whether those things are all taken into consideration with the high costs of travel, the high cost of food prices taken into consideration when we are doing this formula funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That’s the very reason why we’re changing the 25-year-old formula contribution framework, and we’re taking all those into factor, and based on the cost of living, the CPI and doing business in those isolated communities, the fly-in/fly-outs. So, yes, all those are on the table for discussion we’ve had, and we’ll continue to make those changes as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to ask the Minister responsible for Sport and Recreation and Youth some questions about track and field that I raised in my Member’s statement earlier today. I noted that, of course, Hay River is hosting the prestigious NWT Track and Field event next week and it’s actually their 25th anniversary, and our children from the small communities look forward to those track meets. However, my concern, as pointed out by the Grade 6 students, is that back in the smaller communities they don’t have proper practice facilities. In fact, in Fort Simpson they would like to see a new track and field.
I was wondering if the ministry has done any assessment of the smaller communities of how to produce… It would be similar to playground equipment, provide track facilities so that they can practice on the same kind of turf so that they can get the same type of experience as they do when they get to Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
[Microphone turned off] …on that, but I can tell the Member and all the Members that the communities, with their community public infrastructure money and with some changes to the gas tax money, are able to use some of those funds to identify infrastructure. Track would fit the criteria and they’d be able to make the decision to put a track in the community if that was their desire. Thank you.
I’m glad there’s some flexibility as the Minister has said. There are just some new changes to the rules.
What other ways does the ministry support track and field in NWT communities? Thank you very much.
Through a lot of our youth programs and that we have with our sporting partners across the Northwest Territories, they run a lot of clinics in the small communities. There are many different types of sporting clinics they have in the communities. Track may be one of them. I would have to confirm that. But there’s a lot of opportunity out there for those in the small communities who have a desire to get somebody in there to help them with some training. The opportunities are there. Thank you.
Much has been said about some extra money for infrastructure. I was wondering if the ministry can consider that moving forward, because I know that, like I said, I referenced finding some funds to help our schools with playground equipment.
I wonder if we can work towards finding a small pot of additional funds to assist communities in creating track-type facilities as well.
Again, all the money we give for capital infrastructure, we give to the communities and they make the decisions. As well, with the gas tax money. With some of the new Building Canada Plan money, if the project fits and that criteria fits, they would be able to use that too.
As far as identifying any other pots of money, we’ve been able to work very closely with our provincial and territorial colleagues in trying to access any extra monies that might be available. If there are any monies available from the federal government, we’ve become quite good at trying to access some of that money and passing that on to the community. At the end of the day, we’ve always said that the community has the authority to make the decision on infrastructure projects like this and we will support them in any way that we can.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that, like the Minister had said, he has been exposed to other types of funding. Federally, it may even be CanNor, because I know that in the smaller communities you can build small facilities for lower costs just for the same type of track conditions that are in Hay River. But in Fort Simpson we’re talking about a full standard track, and that’s probably a couple hundred thousand dollars. That’s the capacity that they’re asking.
Moving forward, will the Minister help us do a capacity estimate, as it were, to create a new track?
That’s one of the roles that our department plays now, is we work with the communities to help them with technical advice, financial advice if we have ways they can access the funding or use the funding, and any other advice that we can give them. We will work closely with the community.
I can say that I believe it was the community of Fort Smith that just finished a track that they used some of their capital money to build too. I haven’t seen it yet, but I understand it’s a fairly good track. The opportunities are there, and again, the communities will take advantage of those opportunities and we will work very closely with them.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance, is it the intention of Cabinet to waste taxpayers’ dollars to expropriate a successful First Nation-owned business in the Northwest Territories when this money can be better spent and more responsibly used to address real issues? We heard some today here from Mr. Bromley such things as homelessness, housing, mental health or education.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve indicated previously, the Town of Hay River has initiated a public process through a motion in their council on Monday for a public process to renew their franchise, and we, the Power Corporation, are going to submit a bid sometime before the call for proposals closes on July 3, 2015.
I would also point out that the Power Corporation is a Crown corporation owned by every man, woman and child in the Northwest Territories. We, in effect, have about 42,000 shareholders, and about half of those shareholders are Aboriginal, and about over 3,000 of them live in Hay River, and they have expressed a very strong interest to have a public process to see if they can deal with the cost of power, the cost of living. This is not about ATCO. This is about the people of Hay River and the high cost of living that they’re trying to come to grips with.
I was trying to find an answer in that to my question. The issue will be eventually if NTPC is successful, we are going to be talking about taxpayers’ money, and I think we need to come back to the point of the question.
To change things up a bit, I would like to take a moment to ask the Minister about a report, a report that the Minister has been referencing publicly in this House at a recent energy charrette and in media, whereas the Minister has more or less summarized that having one electricity distributor in the North will be more cost effective and can lower rates.
Can the Minister indicate what report he is referencing? Thank you.
This is a public process in Hay River and there is no guarantee that NTPC will be successful. We have to find out who else is going to submit bids. At the end of the day, it is a competitive process because Hay River is looking for the best bid possible because there is a 30 percent differential between the price of power in Hay River and the neighboring communities of Fort Smith and Fort Resolution.
In regards to reports, there have been a number of reports done, in 2009 and, previous to that, the Robertson Report. As well, we’ve had many discussions, we have had our own Energy Strategy, we’ve had two energy charrettes, we had a power system plan put out by the Power Corporation as well at the time we were contemplating expansion to the transmission grid build-out. Thank you.
Can the Minister of Finance please clarify that this report that he doesn’t want to answer the question to, a report that we know and we have some degree of reassurance that was done in secret by the Cabinet without any knowledge to Ordinary Members and that we assume and are led to believe was done by the same consulting firm InterGroup that is on the payroll of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, the exact organization that the Minister is responsible for and is set to gain from the expropriation of Northlands?
All I am asking is for the Minister to clear the air and set the record straight. Thank you.
The Premier has indicated earlier today that consultants on the work that we did on the franchise agreement and whether we issued support to NTPC bidding was done in house. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To put the Minister’s answer in context, this was a response done in camera, so I can’t believe we are talking about that in the House here. But I can tell you that, quite frankly, Ordinary Members have not seen this report yet, so we are talking about a report that is still not before the House or before Members, and what we know is that I can’t comment on something we haven’t seen.
NTPC is the only organization set to gain anything from the expropriation of Northland Utilities, and yet the Minister of Finance claims to open up competition. Yet it is he who writes the policy and sets the rules for the electric industry.
Can the Minister explain how Cabinet is providing a path to competition and lowering of electricity rates when they’re working in a vacuum? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
In point of fact, my understanding is that the authority for bidding on franchises is enabled in the legislation for the Cities, Towns and Villages Act. It comes under the purview of Municipal and Community Affairs, and the community of Hay River – and every community has the right in the Northwest Territories – chose to trigger that process on their own behalf after doing their own due diligence on what they thought would best meet their needs and help them deal with the high cost of living and the inequities between the power rates in the neighbourhood that they reside in in the South Slave. Thank you.
