Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister and his staff for coming in here and presenting Bill 4, Hydro Corporation Act. I would also like to thank the public for coming out during our round of consultations. It was unfortunate, Mr. Chair, that we couldn't get into one of the communities that would have liked a consultation hearing held on this bill. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, our concerted efforts to get in there wouldn't allow us to travel to Lutselk'e at this time. I hope the community will understand that during my extensive conversations with the chief on this bill, they fully understand this bill does in no way, shape or form commit the government or the Power Corporation to proceed with the Taltson hydro expansion project.

As the chair said in our opening comments, this is just the first step in allowing the NWT Power Corporation to move forward to develop a business plan, a feasibility study and a business case to allow any expansion of the Taltson should it be approved in the near future. I hope that through the next two years with extensive consultation processes going on through the Deze Corporation on this project, that they will be in all the communities that will be affected very regularly to update them and to hear their concerns on any new developments in the expansion project that they are moving forward on.

I just wanted us to make one point, I guess, with the Deze Corporation, just so far as the NWT Power Corp and this government's energy plan on providing cheap, reliable clean power to communities in the south that are on the hydro grid. I hope that this project, if it does go through with any type of expansion, we do have a lot of power there to distribute and we are putting some public buildings on electric power now as a pilot project, but I hope when benefits do arise to the Akaitcho Government or to the Metis Nation through their partnership agreement with the Hydro Corporation, that there will be no clawbacks of Power Subsidy Program dollars or the like for the people that are receiving benefits through the development and the realization of a new expansion project.

With that, again, I just hope that the Minister will ensure that there is sufficient communications at all times during all stages of the review process on the Taltson expansion and even before it even gets off the ground, I think right after the bill has been passed here, they should get into all these communities, talk to all the First Nations people that have been affected by the original Taltson 24 years ago, that they can rest assured that all their concerns will be dealt with including compensation issues and impacts and benefits moving forward. With that, I will be pleased to hear how this is going to fit into the big energy plan of the government. I know that hydro is growing. It's going to be big here in the NWT over the next 20 years. This is just a milestone that we are going to be seeing a lot more development on a lot more of our river systems here in the Territories in the future.

Again, I would just like to send out our apologies that we couldn't get into Lutselk'e and I know the chief and council really wanted us there, but, unfortunately, we couldn't fit it into the schedule and due to time constraints on pushing this bill forward and we didn't want to bring the Deze Energy Corporation to a grinding halt, but hopefully the residents will understand that we will still have a lot of input and a lot of say into how the expansion rolls out. With that, I would like to thank the Minister and his colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Chair.