Mr. Chairman, obviously, I will be supporting Bill 18.
---Laughter
Mr. Chairman, I know that the Power Corporation and the new subsidiary that they incorporated has been working very closely with the DPC to try to figure out a way they should acquire their funding. It has been a long process. It has been difficult because what DPC wanted to do at the beginning was to go to the private market to try to see if they could raise $26 million. But through contacts with NWTPC and other people that were involved, they came to an agreement that this would be the best solution for them. That is why they created the NWT Energy Corporation.
As the Minister indicated, it won't be that costly, because the rates that are going to be obtained by this group are going to be lower because they have a track record. I think that this is the first time, although the Minister indicated that there were two other bills similar to this, but this is -- in my view -- the first time that this type of bill has gone through, because the other one was more specific. It was directly to the company, but this one is sort of in between the NWTPC, it is one of their subsidiaries that we are using.
I feel that both groups have to be commended for coming up with an innovative way of dealing with raising this type of money. I think that it is urgently required that this bill get through. My understanding is, Mr. Chairman, the longer we delay, the interest rates change from day to day, so the sooner we deal with this particular bill, we may be saving money in the long run. I would encourage all Members to support this bill. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to make another comment. My colleagues, Mr. Antoine and Mr. Koe, asked questions about contracts being signed to purchase future power. I think the Minister indicated that yes, there is an agreement in place but the method of acquiring future money would depend on DPC to determine. The method they are going to use hasn't been determined yet for the second phase. There is the possibility they want to go the route they are going now or they may want to go a different route. It still has to be determined but there is an actual agreement between DPC and the NWTPC to purchase future power.
Mr. Chairman, those are my comments pertaining to this particular bill and I encourage Members to support this bill.