Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. I understand the Power Corporation was scheduled to meet with the Town of Norman Wells on February the 1st to discuss the situation the community is facing. I want to ask the Minister if he can comment on the outcome of the meeting.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the natural gas situation in Norman Wells has been one we’ve been working on as the Government of the Northwest Territories in a number of fashions. The Power Corporation itself has recently had a meeting with the mayor and council of Norman Wells to discuss some of the work that’s ongoing and concerns with outages and so on and the distribution of power. They’ve also engaged in the work that’s going on for the conversion to either diesel or another form of energy in the community. Thank you.
I spoke to the mayor this morning and he was quite pleased with the meeting they had with NTPC. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister if there has been any cost estimated on converting Norman Wells to diesel power.
The specific area there would be one that is more directed between the community itself and Esso, as Esso right now is the generator and the Power Corporation is the distributor of that energy. We are directly involved in that work going towards conversion and we’d have to look at alternatives, depending on what the community would decide. I would have to get more up to speed on that. I know that the Power Corporation, the CEO and the staff who were at the meeting are aware of the concerns and I’ll look to them to see the work they’re engaged in. Thank you.
Has the government, within its other departments, within the Energy Coordinating Committee, looked at the whole issue of Norman Wells going through this conversion once the natural gas has been cut off to the town, in terms of the commercial and the residential units? Do they know or have an estimate as to what kind of dollars that possibly the Town of Norman Wells will be seeking to help the community, both the commercial and residential users?
Again, I know from the Power Corporation side on the energy distribution and working with Imperial Oil, that that work is ongoing. From an overall Government of the Northwest Territories perspective, when this issue first came to our attention, a number of departments were pulled together to look at what needed to be done and the alternatives that could be looked at, and some of the initial work was to convert some of our larger buildings to diesel so that there would be less of a draw on the natural gas supply that was remaining, to allow a longer transition period. There hasn’t been a commitment for dollars at this point. We’ve been, through the Department of Public Works and Services, for example, supplying technical support to the community to help go through the work that it’s looking at doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Power Corporation or the other departments that are working on this issue here, I know there could be some solutions. Have they been working with the Arctic Energy Alliance to look at different types of renewable energy sources in Norman Wells, or have they been looking at other sources, for example, maybe a natural gas line from Colville Lake to Norman Wells, in terms of alleviating some of the situations in Norman Wells?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m informed that the Town of Hay River, the council, has a working group between the Town, Imperial and, I believe, another firm, Global Technical Services, looking at their operations. We’d have to go to them to see what alternatives they may be looking at. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
