Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister for the power corp. Mr. Speaker, what has the Minister and power corp been doing to stabilize our power system and possibly even reduce power rates north of the lake? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister responsible for NTPC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Member is implying something other than talking about Taltson, but I can't emphasize enough that not being connected to the North American energy grid, not having our grids connected, leaves us very vulnerable. And so we wind up having outages more frequently when there's only one line that runs to a single generating source -- a single hydro generating source. Typically, we'd be able to bring the diesel back online but if that doesn't happen quickly, we wind up in the situation we found ourselves in yesterday.
So, Mr. Speaker, some of the things that we are doing, and one in particular, was with respect to past -- this past spring when we issued a whole list of directives out to the public utilities board, that included with the integrated systems planning. The fact that we don't have integrated systems planning in the North, in my mind, is very urgent. I am always happy to speak about this. It is a serious issue that, as I understand it, lingered for a decade before we got this out to the public utilities board to action. And I know they are actioning it. I've been checking back in with colleagues, with my colleague for the public utilities board, and this is moving forward so that engagements are happening right now on all of those directives, including this one. We need to have an integrated plan that looks at our entire system and what we're going to do to make it better. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's points there. I guess where I was trying to go with this was just ensuring that our infrastructure investment is not just focusing on this southern grid tie-in because it's such a big project, and it's got -- it requires so much funding. I am just wondering are we focusing on smaller solutions as well? So infrastructure investment north of the lake, policy, or legislative change. As I said in my statement, Mr. Speaker, let's pull out all the stops and focus on what we can do to help reduce power rates in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my struggle is I am not going to be able to keep this down into the short answers that I know you're looking from us. So I -- my first comment would be this may be an appropriate topic to have a public briefing on. There is a lot to be said. Another thing happening on the Snare -- on the north side of the lake is a Snare grid modernization project. Again, could have happened years ago. It's happening now. We need to get to a place where a grid system and a generating system that was built in the '70s is modernized, that the transmission lines are brought up to speed, that it is -- that we don't need to question whether or not, you know, something is out of date or old, that it's new, that it's modern. And frankly, the announcements that we're seeing about potential procurements coming in from DND is an opportunity. They would be a big customer for the power. That can then as an industrial customer allow us to do the investments that don't have to go on ratepayers. So, again, a lot is happening right in this moment but that grid modernization could well put us into a position that -- and would also better integrate renewables into the system, alternative renewals beyond the hydro system, add to the grid and bring some stabilities and some redundancy. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I appreciate the Minister's answer there, and I certainly hope in our federal engagement on military investment, we're raising our power infrastructure as a concern.
Mr. Speaker, does the Minister have any idea for us what kind of timeline we can expect this North Slave grid modernization to take place. So when can residents expect to start seeing those improvements come online and help stabilize our system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The challenge we find ourselves in is wanting to ensure we do good planning, so the integrated systems planning that's being led across the territory by the public utilities board, the Snare grid modernization which is focused here, and doing that at the same time that there is also a five-year capital plan for Northwest Territories Power Corporation. So we need to keep upgrading the systems immediately. We also do want to be doing this in the context of having a plan. So there is a five-year plan that is rolling out. There are improvements that are taking place every year, and we see them during the capital planning process here. But at the same time wanting to make sure that we do that as we're building out this plan. So those changes are happening already. There are -- again, I don't have -- and I don't have the capital plan in front of me, Mr. Speaker, but there -- that capital plan, as I said, it already has been put forward. I believe it's been tabled as a document as it does get every year, and I'd be happy to provide an update, perhaps, as to what has happened in the last capital planning year and what is upcoming for this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
