Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've all seen the news about the intention of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to apply for a general increase that would lead to a 25 percent hike in electricity costs, which is obviously a huge blow to both the residents and businesses. My constituents, and I'm sure that many of my colleagues' constituents, are very concerned about the governance of the NTPC. So my questions are for the Minister of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation.
First, what are the Minister's plans to create a truly independent NTPC board instead of a board made up of deputy ministers and ADMs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, member from Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corp.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is something that is a commitment from the very end of the last government in carrying forward and one that I'm certainly happy to action. One of the first things that we do need to do is make sure we design what an appropriate and professional board and non-deputy minister board is going to look like. So the intention there is to ensure that we are outlining what the criteria will be for an expression of interest. That is right now underway, determining what that should look like -- it is being led by the Department of Infrastructure -- to ensure that we are maintaining regional representation and a degree of expertise in the subject matter area. So that's the first step, and then we'll be going out to begin the recruitment process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So what is the timeline for implementing those changes? If the Minister can explain. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that the expression of interest that should be going out for the public will be ready in 2025, early 2025. That then goes out to seek the expressions of interest. We're hopefully going to be looking to get four to eight new members on. That will help to then transition off several of the existing board members who obviously do have other responsibilities. And we'd be keeping, of course -- I shouldn't say of course, we are looking to keep at least two GNWT members on the board; we are the sole shareholder. But that transition process will begin again once we've hopefully recruited a good slate of four to eight members in 2025. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So how will the Minister ensure that the new NTPC board has the appropriate expertise and experience in both the electricity business and in public energy policy to ensure that we can create a modern, forward-thinking, efficient, and accountable board? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the importance of ensuring that we get now a process as well that's clear and that's well thought out in terms of what we are looking for before the expression of interest goes out, designing a matrices of board composition. This is actually the kind of work that's been happening slowly over the last few years in the GNWT, is to move a lot more boards towards having a matrices of what competencies are required for success, what kinds of backgrounds, what kinds of education, what kinds of regional representation, to ensure that the board is diverse, which promotes better decision-making, but has the expertise. So that is the time that's taking to make sure that that piece of what is the matrix we're looking for is done clearly because then the expression of interest can flow from it, and then ultimately board selection can flow from that, aligning who's applied back to the skill set we're looking for. So that's literally the work underway right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Member from Yellowknife North. Final supplementary.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given the challenges that we often speak about in this House around accountability of independent boards, whether it's education, health, housing, how will the Minister ensure that an independent NTPC board can be held completely accountability to NWT residents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, thank you. I've certainly been present in the House when we've had some discussions of late around challenges in terms of the interplay between independence and accountability as entities and creatures of the GNWT, and, Mr. Speaker, I can say that I've actually recently directed the Department of Infrastructure, who are leading this work, to take that into account expressly indicating that while we want to ensure there's independence obviously with non-GNWT members on this board, I've asked that there be a very express and clear connection back to likely the Minister because that is my role to be responsible here and maintains the line of accountability back here. So that was an expressed direction and should hopefully alleviate any misunderstandings or lack of alignment between the priorities of this House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NWT Power Corp. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
