Mr. Speaker, my understanding at the beginning, on the base, there will be four compressor stations. One of them will be located in the area north of Inuvik near where the main gas fields are. One will be in the area of Norman Wells. Another one will be toward Wrigley and a fourth one somewhere in the Deh Cho along the highway. There are four compressor stations in the plans I have seen. That may change as we go through the environmental review. Those four compressor stations will need approximately 100 megawatts of power. Again, this is pipeline information and that's their project description but that can all change. To power that much gas through that line, no matter how they do it, will take something in the neighbourhood of 100 megawatts of power.

Our intention, Mr. Speaker, is to first run a power line, if we were to build on the Bear River, out to the gas line and then north and service the northern needs first. Then later on, we would follow the pipeline south. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, in fact, only one of the compressor stations for the pipeline is even in relative proximity to where the hydro would be generated. That's interesting because that's a whole lot of transmission. That brings into question the viability of something like this. Has Imperial Oil ever explicitly or in any other way say they were interested in purchasing this hydro power?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, certainly Imperial has expressed interest in it. They have also acknowledged that it's technically feasible. They have acknowledged that this is a way of powering compressor stations in many other situations in North America, but they have not agreed to a price nor have we offered anything to them in the form of a price for the hydro power to meet their needs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Going back to the earlier questions about NTPC, the parent company, the Energy Corporation, the subsidiary, a further subsidiary, Sahdae, I believe. Who is the proponent for this hydro development? Is it the Government of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the proponent for this project, assuming we have a commercial project, will be a joint venture between the Power Corporation, NTPC, and Sahdae Energy. Sahdae Energy is not a subsidiary of the Power Corporation, but rather a corporation created by the Tulita and Deline land corporations. Mr. Speaker, they would become the proponents if this is a viable project. Our interest as a government is in the promotion of this as a project and the creation of an environment where this is an alternative source of cleaner energy for our communities, as well as for industry.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, we are doing this partly for commercial reasons but also for environmental reasons. Mr. Speaker, as an example, 100 million litres of diesel fuel that is used in generating power from the diamond mines right now creates 283,000 tons of CO2 that is dumped somewhere in the North. We cannot continue to have that kind of development happening and pipelines doing the same things in the North and continue to have a good pristine environment that we are all proud of. As well as the commercial side, we, as a government, are interested in protecting this land that we have as well. Our role, as a government, once this is determined to be a viable, commercial project, is then to look at it simply as a business project that is managed and owned by the Power Corporation and Sahdae as a joint venture. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for a project of this magnitude, it won't be strictly financed from a lender. There is going to have to be equity involved. Will it be the NWT Power Corporation who provides the equity necessary to finance a project of this magnitude? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, we have not finalized by any stretch how this will be financed in the end. The financing will be based on the long-term contracts we have. Financing could come from primarily two sources. One is we could borrow from investors who are not in the power generation business; life insurance companies, for example, who want to invest and earn money, banks. The other option would be to take on other partners who are in the energy business. Those are decisions that have to be made once we determine that we do have a commercial project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Handley. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, I'm sorry, I don't have any.

Thank you. I'll take you off the list. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of RWED, Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have had quite significant discussions on both the role of this pipeline office and the choice for location. In terms of role, the office will coordinate our government's activities interdepartmentally for the entire project. There are a number of departments that have been involved to date and will continue to be involved in the planning for this project. RWED is an obvious one, both environmentally and from a business development side. You can imagine Education also has to be very acutely involved with regard to training. MACA is doing some community capacity development work, so they are also involved. What we need is a comprehensive strategy and a comprehensive planning unit and this office will provide us with that support. It will also work on the development of many of the agreements we need in place, the socioeconomic agreement is just one of those. So there are a number of facets to this office, but it will provide a coordinated approach that we've needed for some time and I am now happy to say we will have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to ask the Minister of RWED, in light of the office location, how is his office going to coordinate the information to the regional advisors who are on the ground, in the region, in terms of getting information out into our regions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Bell.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The staff in the Mackenzie Valley pipeline office obviously will work on a day-to-day basis very closely with the regional petroleum advisors who are key to our strategy. Obviously it will be the RPAs on the ground in communities who will have their fingers on the pulse of the community, will know about business development opportunities and will communicate much of the work of the MVPO. So we are counting heavily on those positions. I know there are some positions that are still vacant despite the fact that we are funding those RPAs, and I can assure the Member we are working diligently to fill those positions because, as I say, they are critical to the strategy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bell. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.