Mr. Speaker, the COVID-19 global pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and delays for much of our daily life. My question is: does the Department of Infrastructure still consider this project as a priority for the 19th Assembly, the Taltson expansion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Taltson energy expansion project does remain a priority of not only Infrastructure but of the 19th Legislative Assembly as decided upon by all of us in October last year. The GNWT has been successful in obtaining $18 million in grant funding from Canada and continues to pursue the advancement of the project in terms of examining options for the commercial structure, defining our Indigenous partnerships, and completing technical design and environmental baseline work in order to prepare for a regulatory application.
Given the economic fallout that the COVID-19 has created for our economy, this type of project is more important than ever to help spur economic growth. Can the Minister tell us whether any aspect of this project has been changed or has been delayed since the start of the 19th Legislative Assembly?
All work on this important project does continue. The COVID-19 situation may impact the nature of engagement around the project, and that is something that we are going to have to figure out as a government as a whole: how do we do engagement at a time when we cannot necessarily meet in person and, if not, we would be in violation of the CPHO? We are just currently working on establishing the appropriate safety protocols and measures so that we can continue with the Indigenous engagement and the stakeholder engagement that we have promised to do. I just wanted to reiterate that I will be creating a unit within the Department of Infrastructure to take on the engagement process better.
Can the Minister explain what the current stage that the Taltson hydro expansion is in and what comes next?
Currently, we are in the feasibility stage of the project, so our focus remains on examining the potential commercial structures, signing an MOU with our Indigenous partners, and working closely with the Canadian infrastructure bank to build a preliminary business case for this project. Technical work is focused on transmission-line routing options and costs. Strong Indigenous partnerships are imperative to the success of this project. I recently met with the YKDFN leadership to hear their thoughts on how they would like to be involved in this project. I look forward to meeting with other Indigenous partners who will be involved in this project. I have heard not directly from the band but that Lutselk'e is also very concerned about engagement on this project, so I commit to doing that better. I am also currently working with, like I said before, my deputy minister on the establishment of an Indigenous engagement community relations unit within the Department of Infrastructure to ensure that we do have strong relationships with our partners going forward, so that we have the right people around the table when we're talking about Taltson.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister provide a timeline for when the people of the NWT can expect this project to be built and operational? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
This is a long-term project with many steps ahead of us. Our current focus is to establish the partnership relationships and agreements, finalize the preferred route for the project, and then prepare the regulatory applications. We have the federal funding in support of all of that work. Regulatory applications could be ready as early as next year, pending a complete field season this summer, so there potentially could be some impacts there if we can't get the engagement part done before the summer work starts. Following completion of an environmental assessment and regulatory permitting process, construction of the project will take about four or five years. We do think that operations at the facility could start as early at 2030. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
