Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to get into the proposal that was brought forward in regard to ATCO. I, for one, being a previous Minister, know pretty well that ATCO has been trying to get their foot in the door in the North but that they already have their foot in the door. I’m just wondering why is it that this government is not in discussions with Northland Utilities, which is a northern company in partnership with ATCO but yet nowhere has there been any discussions with Northland Utilities in regard to their joint venture with the Dene Development Corporation. Why is that discussion not taking place?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Mr. Speaker, just to make Members aware of the situation, Northland Utilities is a subsidiary of ATCO company. Thank you.
I like to hear that from the Premier. I had a discussion with the president of the Dene Development Corporation who is the partner of Northland Utilities which is a partner of ATCO in which they have had not one phone call. They have been trying to get in contact with Nancy Sutherland, president of ATCO Frontec, with no response back by way of wondering what the arrangement is with their deal. They have a deal with ATCO in regard to their partnership to distribute power in the Northwest Territories, Hay River, Yellowknife, Providence, and other communities in the Northwest Territories. There’s an agreement in place with that organization. But they are not being consulted on what’s going on with this proposal. I’d like to ask the Premier if he would personally make a call to Darrel Beaulieu of the Dene Development Corporation and ask him what role they are playing in regard to this proposal that you received from ATCO.
The business arrangements of ATCO and Northland Utilities and Dene Development Corporation is that they have an arrangement and we don’t have the detail to that. When it comes to dealing with the Dene Development Corporation itself on this matter sure, there’s no problems there. I’ll make the call.
Again, that clearly shows this government is leaving aboriginal organizations and development corporations out of the decision making process of this government. There are other partnership arrangements between the Government of the Northwest Territories and aboriginal companies with regard to power distribution, residual heat, and other types of projects. I’d like to ask the Premier why other aboriginal groups are not given the same ability to submit a proposal on their ability to buy into the power corporation instead of having a southern company do it for us.
At the regional leadership meeting held with aboriginal leaders in Fort Simpson this issue came up. I, at that point, said if they are interested in submitting a proposal we would have a look at that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regard to the $80 million purchase, what is ATCO purchasing? Are they purchasing the assets of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation or are they purchasing the future potential that the power corporation has, some 15,000 megawatts of hydro power, the potential in regard to hydro, or the potential to win the potential for biomass? What are they buying into for $80 million?
Those are good questions and the fact that we’ve provided initial correspondence to committee to sit down and have a discussion about this and questions of that nature are the areas that we are going to do an investigation on. Again, we want to sit down with committee. We want to go through this process and do that due diligence first before we start to deal with it in any further steps.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
