Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Patterson.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I attended a wonderful event last Thursday in my riding. It was a fashion show that the Inuit Women's Association had worked very hard on. They brought a hairdresser up for the event and they had sewn clothing all year for this event. I understand some $70,000 was committed to it and about half an hour into the show something happened that nobody could have foreseen. The power went out.

I would like to ask the Premier, in her capacity as Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, why did it take 48 minutes to get the power on in Iqaluit, during which time over 200 people at the fashion show had to be sent home because they were told that the emergency batteries wouldn't last long enough for the able officials at the Power Corporation to get the plant running again? Why did it take 48 minutes, Madam Speaker?

Madam Premier.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I know how important that event was to the Pauktuutit gathering and certainly I know the amount of work and effort that was put into preparing all the presentations made by women and residents all across the Northwest Territories. The information I received regarding the power outage was those two units were operating and the newly-installed Wartsila unit tripped off due to an inadequately designed level switch. The manufacturer has since provided us with design modifications so that it doesn't happen again.

At the time of the outage, two units were running in Iqaluit. Normally, when one unit fails, a relay protection system is supposed to interrupt only a sufficient number of the distribution feeders coming out of the power house to ensure that the remaining unit can continue to carry on without overloading. When the entire town went out, the plant operator had to initiate a back-start of the generating unit to re-establish station service, followed by the restoration of service to the community. He first attempted to start the smallest unit, which is called a KS6, which is normal under these operating conditions. The KS6 failed to hold when the operator attempted to re-establish the station service. He then made a second attempt with the same result and the problem has been since been attributed to another part of the protection system.

When that wouldn't work, he attempted to start the new CAT unit and this unit failed to run up to the rated speed. The problem has since been traced to the program logic controller with remedial action under way. At the time, the operator then decided to start yet another unit, the K8, followed by the EMD and the services were restored.

Madam Speaker, when a large diesel generator is cold started, it cannot generate power right away, thus the long period to get back into play. Apparently, the unit must be run for several minutes to allow the temperature, oil pressure, et cetera, to normalize before it can be loaded. The fact that a number of units had to be started in sequence contributed to the length of this particular outage. In discussing this with the Power Corporation, they also feel very badly that this power outage had to happen during this very special occasion. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Well, thank you, Madam Speaker. I do appreciate the Premier's acknowledgement that her officials in the corporation feel badly about the problem. That's some small comfort. I guess I would just like to ask -- and I'm not an expert on technical issues, Madam Speaker -- but it seems that there was an inadequately designed level switch which stopped the machine in the first place. Then, as I understand from what the Premier said, the relay system failed to function. When there was an attempt to start another unit, another part of the protection failed and then there was a problem with the programmable logic controller.

I would like to ask the Premier, why did we have to learn all this when the town was in the dark? Doesn't the Power Corporation ever do checks on their back-up system so they can feel out these problems rather than testing them out in emergency situations?

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, to my understanding, this sequence of events in this case were rather unusual. It is not something that usually happens. The action that is necessary has been undertaken to deal with the design shortcomings on the Wartsila and the CAT. What has been done is a remote control system for the separate EMD plant is in its final installation stages. We expect that, with the completion of all these initiatives, the reliability of the Iqaluit electrical system should continue to improve and be set for the support of the new capital of Nunavut. Thank you.

(Microphones turned off)

---Laughter

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Patterson.

Madam Speaker, I should maybe quit while I'm ahead here.

---Laughter

I hear certain rumblings from other parts of this House.

---Laughter

But I do have the floor and I would like to thank the Premier for those extra comments. I'm sure they will be duly noted by the Iqaluit for Capital Committee. What I would like to ask the Premier, Madam Speaker, is there has been a lot of money spent on upgrading the system in Iqaluit. There was a lot of money spent last year when there were some serious power outages and I know a lot of money was spent this summer on new units. Is there a procedure in the corporation for dealing with these kinds of problems? Is there a procedure for training operators or doing drills to ensure that the back-up systems are tested on a regular basis? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Madam Speaker, I believe in the last three years I've been in every community in the territories and have visited the power plant in each and every one of them. Certainly, since the take-over of the Power Corporation by the Northwest Territories, that has been one of the major areas that the corporation has tried to incorporate into the training of workers, the preventative measures that should be taken so that we don't get ourselves in these unusual circumstances. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. Reading the unedited Hansard from yesterday, the Honourable John Todd made a statement with regard to the development of a mortgage investment corporation. He mentions that his department is developing a proposal to establish a mortgage investment corporation and that there was a briefing last fall which I attended. I was one of the Members there that responded positively to that initiative. I would like to ask the Minister when we would expect to see this mortgage investment corporation in place so that people can start using it? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Todd.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Right now, we do have the consultants, a Mr. Grossman and Mr. Kostenko, working on it out of Toronto. I guess it is fair to say it is a fairly complicated investment approach. If we come to the conclusion we should do one, it will require some legislative change and it will require some support from the federal government in terms of guarantees through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, et cetera.

I am trying to fast-track this because we recognize there is a sense of urgency out there. However, in fairness to the honourable Member, I suspect that within the next 90 to 120 days we will know whether it is worthwhile to continue to pursue this and we will know whether, in fact, it has some serious potential to succeed. Once we have accomplished that, I am told by Mr. Grossman, it would take somewhere between six and eight months to put both the legal and legislative framework in place. So, I guess, optimistically, we could be looking at somewhere in the region of 12 months. It is certainly my intent to try to fast-track it.

I do want to caution the honourable Member and others, of course, that part of the initial review that we are currently doing is to determine if this mortgage investment corporation has potential and can clear the hurdles, if you want, that are necessary to put it in place. I am optimistic. I am hoping that the report will indicate that we should proceed, and if we should, I want to assure the honourable Member that it is my intention to try to move as quickly as possible with it and keep the House and, in particular, the Standing Committee on Finance, fully informed. Thank you.

Thank you. Supplementary, Mr. Antoine.

Mahsi, once again, Madam Speaker. Continuing with the question, going back to the unedited Hansard, there is a figure totalling $40 million. It is for the corporation for initial investment. I am trying to recall the briefing last fall, and my recollection -- which I don't think is that bad -- is that the initial investment would have been $5 million. In his statement, it is quite substantially more than what was briefed to us. I would like to ask the honourable Member where this $40 million is going to come from. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, Mr. Todd.

In fairness to the honourable Member, I used the number to demonstrate the leverage between three and five times the money to show that it could, in fact, theoretically, bring a $250 million mortgage investment corporation to the table. In the presentation that was done by Mr. Grossman to the Standing Committee on Finance, the Member is correct. It was significantly less. I believe we had indicated that if we could seed this to the total of $5 million and perhaps look at external and northern money to bring it into a $25 million pot, then from there we would lever it three to five times. So, the comments yesterday were mainly to illustrate how we could lever this particular investment corporation at three to five times, and I apologize if it has confused the Member. Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5, oral questions. The honourable Member for High Arctic, Mr. Pudluk.

Thank you. Minister of Renewable Resources, Mr. Kakfwi.