Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to briefly talk to the issues of hydro, specifically hydro in the South Slave.
Mr. Speaker, the Taltson River system has been identified as an existing hydro generation facility. It has the capacity to be expanded. There has been a significant amount of work done by the government in terms of reviewing the technical issues and the marketing issues but, Mr. Speaker, I believe it is now time for the government to come to Fort Smith and meet with all the concerned groups, the community leaders, the aboriginal governments and the citizens of the region so that we can discuss the issue to see what is possible, to see if in fact there is support for this and what the plan would be to move this ahead. It is critical at this point, given the emphasis on energy and on hydro, that this be done in a timely fashion.
I have written to the Premier a number of weeks ago and he was going to consult with Minister Handley. Later today, on that particular issue of hydro, I will be asking the Minister some questions.
As well, Mr. Speaker, on the issue of hydro in the South Slave, I understand that recently the Alberta government has dusted off the plans for the dam across the Slave River. Mr. Speaker, when this was looked at over 15 years ago, what was contemplated was a riverbank, the riverbank dam that would have generated close to 2,000 megawatts of power. There would have been enormous impacts. The downstream impacts -- I shudder even to think what they would be on the Slave, on the Mackenzie, on the whole Northwest Territories. Now we have a recently signed reserve and treaty land entitlement arrangement with the Smith Landing people. Will all their land, or big portions of their land, be flooded?
Mr. Speaker, the whole issue of hydro is one that we have to pay very close attention to. While the Taltson has the potential to be a good project, it is small, it is manageable and its impacts would not be hugely significant in terms of the environment. The issue of the Slave River is one that should be of significant concern to every Northerner because we are going to be the downstream recipients if that were to go ahead as initially proposed. There are major environmental implications that I think would have an irrevocable and negative impact on the Northwest Territories.
Later today, I will be asking the Minister if he could speak to those issues. Thank you.