Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to use the occasion to once again return to the cost of living under the context of power bills, and I’m going to ask questions to the NWT Power Corp Minister.
Let’s start off by examining the cost of power and its distribution here in the Northwest Territories. I’d like to ask the Minister, would he be able to speak to the rates of return to Northland Utilities and the NWT Power Corp in both the thermal, non-thermal and the hydro zones here? If he could do that breakdown on the cost that Northerners are paying to get their power. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll get that information and provide it to the Member. Thank you.
That’s okay. I have it here, so the Minister doesn’t have to do it. Rate of return for Northland Utilities is just over 9 percent; rate of return for the thermal zone is zero percent through the NWT Power Corp; and rate of return on the NWT Power Corp in a non-thermal zone is 8.5 percent.
I’m going to ask the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation, noting that we can adjust rates of return on our equity that go back to the Power Corp, what type of influence, power stabilization is the NWT Power Corp Minister doing to ensure that zones like the Yellowknife region and the hydro zones below the South Slave are getting fair value for their money? This government can socially engineer power rates in other jurisdictions, why aren’t we working across the Territories to stabilize all costs? Thank you.
We did a rate restructuring a number of years ago. We have the thermal zone and the hydro zone. The rates for the thermal zone are pegged to the Yellowknife rate. In the hydro zone the cost of business is done and the rates set through the Public Utilities Board.
I appreciate the Member’s question. We are looking at how we are structured as a system. We are looking at generation issues that we know we need to address that would help bring down the cost of living as it relates to the price of energy. We are looking at all those major areas as we look to the fundamental government priority of lowering the cost of living. Thank you.
I’ll allow the Minister to correct me if I’m incorrect on this point, which is I believe power to the golden gates of Yellowknife is delivered at about 18 cents a kilowatt and I think that there’s a big margin between that and the end user who picks up their power bill monthly.
Can the Minister confirm what the power rate is delivered to the Jackfish plant that comes available for Northland Utilities to pick it up for its distribution cost, and how we can help narrow that gap so Northerners can afford a power increase, especially knowing that in a couple short days we’ll be receiving another 6.2 cent increase on top of the high power rates we’re already receiving? Thank you.
The rate of power in Yellowknife is governed by the fact that, one of the reasons is that power is generated by the Power Corporation and it is distributed by Northland Utilities, and that rate is set through the Public Utilities Board. As we look to the future, we look at that issue; we look at the issue of the cost of power, the fact that we’ve had a number of incidents here in Yellowknife with low water, turbine failure on the Snare system that have all driven up the cost of business and generating power in Yellowknife. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next question is: What are we doing to analyze our power distribution to ensure that not only our structure is most efficient but our equipment is most efficient? When I refer to the equipment, often I hear people talk about when the new meters came in, their power bills all jumped. I’m wondering what type of analysis the NWT Power Corp has done on that type of trend. It’s not that I’ve heard this from one person; I’ve heard this from several people who said that when the new infrastructure rolled in, their power bills jumped.
Has the NWT Power Corp done any analysis on these types of trends, because Northerners can’t afford their power bills and if we have meters that cause the prices to jump it makes the cost of living unbearable here in the North.
The issue of meters is a critical one. Every jurisdiction has to meter. You can’t manage what you can’t count, and you can’t bill what you can’t count. The issue of are they accurate, from everything I’ve seen and heard there is not an issue with faulty meters. I will, in fact, raise the issue and will follow up with the Power Corp and see if there have been concerns raised in that area and what redress was taken.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
