Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to just talk a little bit with my question. In 2005, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat released a review of governance framework for Crown corporations. That report said that, to be effective, boards of directors must approach their work objectively. It also talked about the independence that helps to establish a board's credibility and supports sound governance. It also talks about how best practice requires that boards of directors in Crown corporations function independently from management.
My question to the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation is: if he feels that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation is following what the federal government considers best practices, why isn't GNWT following what's considered best practice? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
Thank you, and I thank the Member for telling me exactly where this quote was from. It's 2005 that they talked about best practices in moving forward. I have read the briefing on it. I can't tell you how the previous government made that decision. I can tell you what we are doing.
Right now, I am trying to make a decision based on a whole bunch of information. I have directed the board to come back with the governance model. Whether we stay where it is; do we go independent; do we go half-and-half; right now, we're working at trying to get the answer and get this information to us as best we can so that I can make an informed decision. Right now, that's the direction I've given the board, and right now, they're independent. They are six individuals sitting on the board. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
If they are independent, are these deputy ministers receiving any additional bonuses or honorary or monetary compensation for serving on the NTPC board as they would as an independent, regular member of the territory? Or are they just getting their regular DM salaries, also meant to cover these additional duties?
We are not giving them bonuses, and we're not giving them extra money. This is just part of their duties that they're being paid for, but they are doing work on weekends and evenings to do the job, because they have another job that they are doing right now. It would be no different than any other board; they would actually do weekend and evening work. To the Member, we're not giving them any bonuses and we're not giving them any extra pay.
Okay. Well, so how does the Minister say that they are independent? If we have regular people on this board, they would be getting these honorariums so that they would be compensated, but we have staff. We have staff, Mr. Speaker, so can the Minister please try to explain that so I can understand it?
Right now, they are meeting as a board independent of their roles as deputy ministers. They are taking on the task of trying to govern the NWT Power Corporation as best they can with the information that they have. Again, right now, it's not costing us anything to pay them. We're not paying them to do that job. Right now, they're independent. Yes, they are DMs who were appointed, but they are going as individuals, not as DMs.
In your speaking notes, you talked about the DMs who were removed or replaced. We're fixing that. We're specifically talking about those people to do those positions right now. Right now, as we go and look at the governance model, we'll have an answer that may work better for everybody involved later on.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister share with this House any progress made since 2016 on the governance options that these DMs were supposed to establish, and can he provide them to the Members or table the documents of the governance options? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I actually met with the chair, and we've been having communications, and we are working on a flow chart of what we're doing. We're going to try to have that shared with committee as soon as possible; we're hoping by spring we will have this information to committee to be looked at so we can make an informed decision together.
Yes, we will share that information with you. I've already, like I said, reached out to the chair and the president and asked for that information to be tabulated so we can share it with committee moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
