Michael Miltenberger

I wasn’t expecting to dissolve the Power Corporation. The Power Corporation is a critical vehicle for the territorial government and its energy policy. However, the relationship has evolved over the years. There was a time, many Legislative Assemblies ago, when there was a dividend required from the Power Corporation, but as things have changed, cost of energy has gone up, the decision was made to not require the dividend, to reinvest whatever money they have back into keeping the costs as low as possible.

We have had to engage with the Power Corporation clearly in a way that it doesn’t make it...

The final decision on what projects to invest in to secure our economic future belongs to the 18th Legislative Assembly.

Our fiscal challenges are not unique and we will not be shrinking from them. Recognizing our reality prepares us for the tough choices we will have to make now and in the future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If my memory serves me correctly, it was during the life of the 15th Assembly there was a renewal process, and at that point there was some talk of the Power Corporation putting forward a proposal for that franchise. But at the end of the day, the government of the day instructed the Power Corporation not to proceed.

I first think it’s important to make a note or a point for the edification of people listening, and that is that if we didn’t have the diamond mines we would be short about $1.5 billion a year out of gross domestic product, and I can tell you, if we had that big a hole in our economy that we would be in a far more difficult and bitter position than we would ever think by the loss of those types of activities.

We need to make sure we work with industry to have sustainable, balanced development. The Minister of ITI talked about that in his Minister’s statement today. We mustn’t forget that we...

I appreciate the fact, the government has always appreciated the fact that there are far more needs than there are resources. There are two issues we have, two critical issues. First is we have to make sure that our expenditures don’t outstrip our revenues, and that is going to be a real challenge as we move forward, given some of the cost pressures. Then we have to make sure that we have processes to look at how we’re going to make critical investments in economic infrastructure, infrastructure that will create conditions for economic development.

Clearly, there are going to be a whole host of...

There is a very fragmented system in Alberta. BC has BC Hydro, which is their major power utility that has enormous sway over most of the province. But I would have to commit to get back to the Member. I don’t have any further information that I could just off the top of my head indicate what systems are in place in other jurisdictions, though I would say, clearly, in Ontario they have a utility and they are divesting themselves of some of their assets, and Manitoba Hydro, as well, is a very, very major utility in Manitoba. But I will commit to get back to the Member with the information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A review was done of costs in Hay River, all the publicly available information that was there in regards to the services provided. Then they also did their own estimates of the cost of potentially running those systems of the Hay River franchise, as well, and put forward those numbers, and they were then brought forward and assessed by a Cabinet committee.

The Premier has indicated earlier today that consultants on the work that we did on the franchise agreement and whether we issued support to NTPC bidding was done in house. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve indicated previously, the Town of Hay River has initiated a public process through a motion in their council on Monday for a public process to renew their franchise, and we, the Power Corporation, are going to submit a bid sometime before the call for proposals closes on July 3, 2015.

I would also point out that the Power Corporation is a Crown corporation owned by every man, woman and child in the Northwest Territories. We, in effect, have about 42,000 shareholders, and about half of those shareholders are Aboriginal, and about over 3,000 of them live in Hay...

I will limit my comments to making the observation that it’s a public process and I understand that the Town of Hay River has sent copies of the RFP to both ourselves, the Power Corporation, and to ATCO. Thank you.