Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement earlier today. With the money being spent on Taltson, we could have built Lutselk’e and Whati mini-hydros, had them half paid for and started community residents on 50 years of reduced power costs. Instead, we have a plan for building the world’s longest extension cord to a dead end with a one-industry client base. This is the kind of sound management that put us on a $180 million hook for a bridge. Why has the shareholder -- that’s us -- permitted the Hydro Corporation to pursue any system development without an electrical grid analysis and long-term plan completed? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Hydro Strategy, we’ve put that in front of this House. It’s a public document. We know we’ve got to continue to do some work. There are future plans for having the interconnectivity as the Member discussed.
Specifically on this project, as the Member is aware from his own past work in a government department, it takes a lot of preparation that goes into getting to a point where you have a project that you can bring to the environmental phase and that process. Before you can sign agreements, you need to know what that final environmental piece would be so if there are changes required to a project, that will potentially change the outcome. The Member is right; it’s in the neighbourhood of $13 million that we’ve done this work on the Taltson and we’ll continue to look at that and negotiation is underway on that piece.
We looked at options of running the lines alternate routes for the Taltson Hydro Facility, but doing that added more money to the project and this project has always been one where it’s going to be the power purchase agreement that makes it happen or not happen. Thank you.
There is still no real plan in place and what have we got to show for the work that’s been done so far? The Hydro Corporation has promised feasibility, analysis and design for a potential electrical grid. Where is that? What is the status of its development? Why is this majority shareholder permitting its corporation to concoct multimillion dollar schemes without a business plan for the development of our electrical system?
So, Mr. Speaker, we’ve talked about hydro strategies and so on, but we have never seen any work come forward. When we have asked questions, it’s been written off out of hand. We’ve asked for prices on alternatives and it’s treated leisurely as if we are in left field. So where is the real work that’s been done here, Mr. Speaker?
The Member is aware we have shared the information about alternate routes on the Taltson Hydro Project. We have shared the information about where the breakdown is. For example, out of that $13 million, $2.2 million, or 17 percent, went to engineering; $3.1 million, or 24 percent, when to environmental; $4.6 million, or 35 percent, of that funding went to the regulatory process and the partnership agreement; $1.3 million, or 10 percent, has been spent in that area, and legal and finance makes up the rest of that area. We’ve shared the updates on this project, where it’s gone. We’ve pushed to see if the alternate routes are more feasible. Again, it comes to the ability to make this project finance itself on the sale of electricity. If we want to, as a government, go alternate routes, then let’s take a look at that. Thank you.
I am talking about public interest. I’m talking about this government representing the public and getting a deal that will support our economy. Yes, we’ve done good work on that project. The problem is the front-end thinking is missing. Where is the public interest? I have a feeling there are all kinds of organizations lining up to partner with the Government of the Northwest Territories. I mean, how could they not enjoy the millions? Everybody else seems to be. So I’m saying where is the front-end thinking, Mr. Speaker? Where is the vision?
We’re talking hydro, we’re talking a 50-year time frame and I want to know where the thinking is to make sure the public interest is... When we get in bed with these partners, we seem to be ensuring them big returns. Where is the public interest being looked after in this equation? Thank you.
The thinking on this is thinking about building capacity with our aboriginal partners across the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, the Member doesn’t put more weight and bearing on that piece of it. We do, as the Government of the Northwest Territories. We will continue to do that.
We have looked at this project and this project has been built on a pure case of a business model. If we want to establish more to it, then we can do that.
Members of this Assembly have the Hydro Strategy. If we want to take particular pieces of that and put the emphasis on that, then let’s sit down and work that process out. We know it’s got to change as we go forward, but this one project has been designed on a business case of having a client to sell the product to. On that basis, it’s gone forward. It’s been laid out. It’s been through Members’ updates and briefings and we’ll continue to do that.
Ultimately, a decision on this project is going to be based on agreements in place that make it profitable. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m sure it will be profitable to our partners. What I’m talking about is public interest. So, yes, I would like the Premier to commit to a re-examination of the more costly alternatives, but the one that actually goes forward with the public interest addresses multiple goals rather than services a single provider that we hope is going to be there long enough to help pay for the system and put it around the west side where we know there are permanent customers waiting to use that power in a responsible way over the long haul. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
To get the key pieces in place and make the final connections, we need to have a client to sell this to. This project is about building the economy of the Northwest Territories. It is about reducing our greenhouse gas emissions across the Northwest Territories. This potential project, if it were to go ahead and be completed, we’re talking 700 direct jobs during this phase, 230 indirect jobs, building a shareholder base and building capacity within our aboriginal corporations in the Northwest Territories. That’s the forward thinking. That is building the economy and spreading it out across the Northwest Territories, in fact, by limiting our own impact on greenhouse gas in the Northwest Territories. So if this project goes, and it will go only by the fact that it’s a business case model, if we add more to it, then we lose the business case and there is no project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
