Merci, Monsieur le President. Last week I made a Member’s statement on the future of renewable energy in the North Slave region. I would like today to talk about the role of the Northwest Territories Power Corp. with regard to renewables and its relationship with the new energy plan announced in this House last week. In the fall of 2015, NTPC issued an expression of interest for joint venture proposals to provide 10 megawatts of electricity through wind and solar in the North Slave. In April of this year, we learned that the process was cancelled. A number of proposals were received and significant effort went into their work. The parties that submitted proposals were told about the cancellation of the process through an e-mail and some were not pleased. One of the former NTPC board members said that the direction to cancel the process came from the GNWT itself. It’s unclear why GNWT would cancel this process of building energy diversity and sustainability. With some digging, we found a 2016 Strategic Plan for NTPC, obviously prepared before the recent change in governance. NTPC’s mission was described as “to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally sound manner; striving to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. NTPC exists to provide value to its shareholders and customers through the efforts of a highly dedicated, skilled, and productive workforce.” Is this still its mission or are we on the way to mega-hydro development and power exports? To my mind, NTPC should be doing itself out of a job by building community and householder energy self-sufficiency. What of the future of the NWT Power Corp, the new energy plan? What will be the role of NTPC in the development of that plan now that deputy ministers make up the board? Will NTPC become the instrument for large dams and flooding communities for export of power? Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corp later today. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Members’ statements. Member for Sahtu.
