Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, will talk about the Taltson expansion. I’ll try to ask some questions that are different than the questions that the Minister responsible for the Power Corp has already answered. My first question is: what is the GNWT’s overall management role in the Taltson Hydro expansion? Who has the lead management role in this expansion? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT, through the Hydro Corporation and more specifically the NWT Energy Corporation No. 3, that is a partner at the discussions and the Deze partnership. It is through that involvement that we’re involved and, again, our relationship through the Minister responsible to the Hydro Corp exists through that avenue. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, another question I have for the Minister: what is the GNWT’s long-term financial plan insofar as the Taltson Hydro expansion goes, including any corporation owned by the GNWT aside from and including the diamond industry? Thank you.
That would be difficult to provide an answer at this point. The long-term fiscal plan, again, of the partnership is, one, the partnership will have a board of governors, a governance council set up to make these business decisions. The business model that’s been put in place sees this project being viable because of the power purchase agreements and the return on investment through those after paying down the initial portion that would grow, of course, would grow faster if we were to do the full expansion up to I believe it’s 56 megawatts. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, considering the difficulties, I believe that this expansion or the partners in this expansion are going to have to go through the area, the eastern route, to negotiate anything with the Lutselk'e First Nations. I can’t see any of that being settled ahead of the land claim, and I can’t see that being settled after the land claim because of the position as taken and the value that Lutselk'e First Nation considers on the land. I would like to ask the Minister what examination has occurred for other potential users insofar as in relation to where the transmission line runs, actually, to try to get them to see if he’s examined other routes due to potential users or so on. I’m trying to say that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as a result of the environmental review process, additional routing is being looked at, and that’s to incorporate the concerns raised by the Lutselk'e band when it comes to especially the area of the Lockhart River and the importance that river is held in by that band. So there is alternate routing looked at in that area still along the East Arm to try and deal with that and still get power through the process.
Right now, if we were to talk in today’s business case, there are no other potential customers except existing customers. There are future potential customers that could be looked at, but we don’t even know if, until they get through a regulatory phase, there will be a mine and how it will be done. We’ve got a long journey on that side to go. We see that as a potential future customer, yes, and we will have to look at how we go forward on that basis. But right now this business case is built on existing customers that we could bring on to our grid system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister tell me if the Taltson Hydro expansion has potentially viable partners? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the partnership that’s been formed, the partnership agreement that’s been started and worked on and has been initialled by the other partners, we, as the GNWT, as the sole shareholder of the Hydro Corporation and down through to, well, it would be the NWT Energy Corporation, have yet to sign that. We have to review that to see if, in fact, that is the best business case model that we could support of this project, and we’ve asked for some additional time to review that document. We don’t want to get into a situation where we’ve not protected our full interests, as Members have been laying out. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
