Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Finance Minister’s budget address today he talked about the expansion of the Taltson hydro dam and that’s something that has been on the radar for quite some time. It would be an economic boon to the area. It would certainly be environmentally good judgment to offset the use of diesel and the mines and perhaps other consumers as well that would be interested in tying into extra hydro power. Mr. Speaker, there are many benefits and many pluses to the expansion of the Taltson hydro dam.
The Minister indicated that the GNWT does not have the financial capacity to undertake a project of this size and refers to a price of $500 million. The Minister also indicates that the GNWT even with federal support for this project would still not have the capacity to undertake this project. He talks about inviting partners or a partner who would have the financial capability to participate with the GNWT. I would like to ask the Minister if he has anybody in mind. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am assuming most Members are aware when we were in Copenhagen the Premier and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Ms. Southern from ATCO about the Taltson expansion. Mr. Krutko and Mr. Abernethy, while they weren’t at the meetings, were clearly aware that we were having those discussions. So we’ve had some discussions with Ms. Southern on this issue. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s the first time I’ve actually formally heard those meetings taking place in Copenhagen. I had heard some rumours and so on. How does any discussions that have taken place or any agreements that may be arrived at, how does that tie in with the unsolicited ATCO proposal that has also been on the table of which we are awaiting the government’s review of that proposal? How is that related to the Taltson? Thank you.
I’ll indicate two things. First, these discussions are at the very preliminary stage and there is no link between these two. We are looking at trying to make sure the Taltson project is able to go ahead and if we don’t within the next six to eight months come up with a way to make that happen, the Taltson project, for all intents and purposes, at least for the life of this Assembly and probably for at least three years or more will be put on a shelf. So there is no link. The issue is trying to make sure that we can move ahead on the Taltson. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I assume that the discussions with Nancy Southern from ATCO were in a positive vein. I would like to ask the Minister what would be the next steps in pursuing a partnership to enable the GNWT to develop the Taltson hydro potential. What would the next steps in that process be? Thank you.
Given the very preliminary nature of our discussions, we are having some very basic discussions. The folks from ATCO are looking at all the public information that’s on the website to come up with a full understanding of the project. We are waiting to hear back from them in terms of, we were sharing some documents in terms of some basic points, principles that we could possibly look at if we were going to proceed with the discussions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the very public quasi announcement by the Minister of Finance today that the GNWT is looking for a partner on the Taltson hydro expansion, does the government have a plan if this information that’s been put out here today... If this has the effect of interesting other parties, potential other parties in this, does the government have a plan to deal with that so that this is not kind of just, you know, flying by the seat of our pants on this, that we actually aren’t just waiting to react to things, that in fact we have a plan going forward? Thank you.
We have an arrangement with partners already, which is compromised of ourselves, the Northwest Territories Metis and Akaitcho. We also recognize and they’re working on the partnership, they are working on the generation part of the project. But we also recognize, as I pointed out in my statement, that even with some federal assistance, we are not going to be able to proceed with this project unless we get outside help. We need a partner. So we’ve had some initial discussions recognizing that fact, recognizing that we have about eight months to get ourselves sorted out and we are going to focus our most immediate attention on that that is right before us before we look further afield. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
