Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for the question. When this decision was made, it was in, I believe, the 18th Assembly because I remember speaking to it often, and the decision to put public servants in charge and also to bail out the power corporation to the degree where it essentially has become a Crown corporation or public corporation in name only, it still doesn't change the fact it is a public corporation. And this is not a question of energy policy. This is not a question of infrastructure. This is a question of how we govern our public agencies and our Crown corporations. And we are not doing it right. Crown corporations need to have independence. They need to be arm lengths of government, and they need an independent board. All the guidance that is given through the federal treasury board, through various provincial treasury boards, through industry standards, says this. This is not a way to run a public corporation, and I don't support what that -- I don't support the continuation of this decision. It was supposed to be short term, and it's now de facto, and that definitely needs to change. I'm sympathetic with the speaker -- with the previous speaker's last point around the government holding the reins a little bit. And we can still do that. The board's appointed by the Minister. It's not an election, right. So we have the opportunity to work with that board, to put the right people in place who are going to drive competitiveness, who are going to drive innovation, and who are going to drive efficiency. And if we expect a cadre of deputy ministers to do that, I think we're going to find -- we're not going to find the results we're looking for. This needs to be run like a corporation and not run like a department. And how we are running it is not following best practices. And if Premier, I will change that and return it to a public board while we determine the long-term future of our electricity system in the Northwest Territories working in collaboration with all Members. But this is a matter of governance, not power. Thank you.
Kieron Testart on Questions by Members
On December 7th, 2023. See this statement in context.
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