Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation.
My question for the Minister is: Can the Minister of the NWT Power Corp inform this House which of our 33 communities the NWT Power Corp does not service as the distribution agent and explain why that is not the case? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That would be Hay River, Yellowknife, Providence, Wekweeti, Enterprise, Trout Lake. Thank you.
Would the Minister of the NWT Power Corporation explain why the NWT Power Corp isn’t the agent for distribution of power in those particular communities or from his ability to explain how we got where we are today to have individual franchise agreements for those particular communities and not in the others that remain out of the 33? Thank you.
Thank you. The way our system is structured, communities make the choice of who they would like to make an agreement with to provide their electrical services. There’s a process through the franchise process to do that and communities have done that over the years. Thank you.
We’re all well aware that the Cabinet has the authority, as does the Executive Council, to exempt the NWT Power Corp from delivering a dividend payment to the government. By the way, when I say dividend I mean profit.
Is the Minister able to speak to how long this happens to be the case and when was the last time the government directed the NWT Power Corp to deliver a dividend? As this government waived the dividend, what is the intent of why they’ve waived it?
The Power Corporation does have a rate of return, but as has been demonstrated over the last number of years, there have been cost pressures on the Power Corporation that far exceed to manage without the government’s ability to come and cushion the blow on the ratepayers. The 37 or 38 million dollars we put in to cushion the impact of what would have been a rate cliff because the prices of fuel hadn’t been raised over the last number of years. The most recent one would have been the low water surcharge that we’ve covered off as a contribution to the Power Corporation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the NWT government has the ability to waive the dividend, can the Minister speak particularly to the franchise agreement? I believe they are 10-year agreements. Would the Minister be able to speak to that detail on whether they are all 10-year agreements and does the territorial government have what one could define as an exit clause if they need to find a new direction for the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Those franchise agreements are arrangements between the communities and power provider. I would have to commit to the Member to find out the length of time of the agreements. I don’t have that knowledge readily at my fingertips. The GNWT does not have a role to play as the communities look at their franchise arrangements. For example, the community of Inuvik just signed an agreement with the Inuvik Gas for a 10-year period. That was work they carried out as the community government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
