Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the line of questioning from my colleague from Nunakput kind of tweaked my interest. So I've got a question for the Minister responsible, either Infrastructure or NTPC. I would like to know ask the Minister what immediate electrical backup or supports is provided to residents in small communities where power could be out for long durations; you know, longer than a day? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories Power Corporation you know, every region, every community's different. We have some communities that rely predominantly on hydro and we have some most of our communities rely on diesel. And, you know, it is quite different. The power corporation works with the communities, with the hamlets, with the you know, the bands. The list goes on. Just to work together to ensure that, you know, if there is a power outage for a significant time that we have open communication. And, you know, it is our goal all the time to ensure that we have systems in place, and we have staff that are, you know, on their way to a community as quick as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I apologize to the Minister for putting her on the spot without giving her questions ahead of time, but I guess what I'm trying to I'm going to do here is offer a solution. It's a small one. But, like, power outages in small remote communications can be devastating. So would the Minister be willing to support an upgrade to homes that would allow for them to tie in small generators? Because most communities, a lot of people have smaller generators and if they have an upgrade to their panel, they can the power goes out; they'll be able to flick a breaker and be able to hook up their own power source which would probably give them their furnace and at least the lights. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, each community has emergency facilities that are powered to accommodate members. So, you know, in some of our communities we like I mentioned earlier, along the lines of Member from Nunakput where we had we had the school and health centre backup as quick as possible. We do have emergency equipment. Some homeowners can do that, and we have a program for that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm glad to hear that the you know, they have a program. And I think it's important that, you know, when we're looking at building homes in the North, and especially in the smaller communities, that we incorporate that into the build because it's just a you know, it's a minor upgrade to when they're putting the panels in. So would the Minister be willing to, you know for her department to offset some of those costs as well? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to back up here for a second. I do I did mention that there's a power for this there's a program for this. And I don't believe there is, I'd have to confirm. I would hate to stand here in the House and just commit to something, to say that we have programs for this and programs for that when in fact, perhaps, maybe we don't. So I just want to retract what I committed to saying that we have programs. I don't believe we do. I'd have to look into it and get back to the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, you know, I think it would be well worth adding that into, something like that for the smaller communities. Like I say, it's not a big cost and I think that would you know, it would really be beneficial to homeowners. So, again, I just ask the Minister to you know, if she would at least commit to looking into it and hopefully doing and the other thing is talk to her colleague there, the Minister responsible for Housing as well because a lot of the units are public housing units and maybe they can be incorporated into that, you know, over a number of years and as new builds come forward. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, power outages negatively impact customers also. You know, it is extra cost for Northwest Territories Power Corporation due to, you know, sending staff into the communities, travel costs for repairs, some of the equipment damage. You know, we do have aging infrastructure within our power corporation. And, you know, as we look to switching over to a more greener provider for the communities. I think that we need to look at that.
And I do want to note, Mr. Speaker, customers here in the Northwest Territories experience approximately three to four times more power outages than the Canadian average. It's just something that we you know, it's not Mr. Speaker, that's not what we like to hear. But we are doing, you know, the best we can to be able to ensure that we work with our communities and we have staff on the ground when and where possible as quick as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
