Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was a nearly four-hour blackout yesterday in the city of Yellowknife. The Minister's well aware. She was -- and very thankful to have her engagement and receive updates from her through that. Can the Minister just speak to -- clearly to the citizens of Yellowknife, Dettah, and N'dilo, what happened to cause the power outage and how was it resolved? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister responsible for NTPC.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, again, I'll just -- I'll put it back the other direction, that it is helpful when people are getting information out to the public. I would always direct people back to NTPC's Facebook page, if they're on social media that is the first point of call. But everyone that was participating -- and that makes it easier for residents to know where to look, where to find information. So that is helpful that we're all out there.
Mr. Speaker, we ultimately were able to identify that this was an issue at the Jackfish substation. And they were -- the crews that were out there were trying to get the system back online using both hydro and diesel. The challenges, and where typically our power outages get resolved fairly quickly, because we can go from hydro to diesel, in this case it was difficult to get the diesel units up and going, and that led to further delays. Eventually, they got the Bluefish back online. But there does take some time to go from where the staff are stationed out to Bluefish. So between all of those things and different efforts, it took longer than has been typical for us. The first customers got their power back around 8:20, and the later customers by about 10:20. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker -- and thank you to the Minister for that and also updates from Naka Power and the City of Yellowknife were very helpful as well. So thank you to everyone who worked hard to get that information out to the public.
Are there not contingency or backup systems to prevent this kind of thing? I know this was a difficult technical issue to solve, but it seems like these -- when these -- many of these power outages are getting longer and longer to resolve. So are we looking at investing in more contingency and backup so when these faults do occur, they're shorter, they're resolved quicker, and they bear less costs to citizens and businesses. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, having access to a diesel generating facility and hydro does create generally a redundancy for the city of Yellowknife. And as such, Yellowknife, in general -- certainly last year, last calendar year -- although we had more frequent outages than other parts of Canada, we actually were well under the average in terms of our restoration time. Obviously last night was certainly an exception to that. And as I just mentioned in my previous response, Mr. Speaker, part of the problem there was because we couldn't get what is the typical backup diesel to be up and running as it was expected to. So that is unusual circumstance. I mean, there's certainly how many layers of backup to backup are necessary. If there was a grid connection that provided a redundant system, then you can move power more seamlessly between the different grids. We don't have that here. And in the interim, Mr. Speaker, we certainly want to make sure that the systems that we have, both the hydro and the diesel, are up functioning and as modernized and as up to speed as they can be. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I mean, I guess if we're pretty good at getting it back on, then we need to prevent the frequency of them. So that's the million-dollar question, probably the billion or even trillion-dollar question. So how much is it going to cost to fix this and when is it going to happen? Because Northerners cannot keep living through this. I can't tell you how many messages I received of people saying enough is enough, I am looking to leave the North. And not just tonight, but for many -- over the months leading up to this session, it's getting unbearable, and we need something, and the solutions need to come now, and there needs to be a plan, and there needs to be progress. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I agree that for the course of maybe 20, 30 years, there ought to have been integrated systems planning, a Snare resiliency study done, and a connection of our grids. In the absence of that, Mr. Speaker, we are now trying to do all of those things at the same time in the course of this government so that we can deliver on the kind of plan and the kind of intentional plan that this community and the whole of the Northwest Territories needs. We cannot afford as a territory to be behind. It is an issue that I raise frequently with federal counterparts from funding perspective. Interties are on the radar of the federal government. They need to come here and help support this. Because if you want to know the costs, we are in the hundreds of billions of dollars to replace the entire system. That's not reasonable. So what can we do in the meantime? We need to be doing as many things as we can. So a line out to Whati, a line around to Fort Providence, connections of the two grids, building in its systems planning, replacing battery systems, making them so you can integrate your renewables, making it so that you can integrate your home renewables, making it so that communities can have renewables. All of this needs to happen. As I say, Mr. Speaker, those things are moving forward. They are going to take some time, but they are moving forward now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister responsible for NTPC. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
