Mr.

Speaker, residents of

Yellowknife have had a very concerning experience recently. With the air temperature below minus 40 Celsius, a total power outage happened. The city sat in total darkness for over an hour in many areas before it was restored. Yellowknife continues to get blackouts from time to time, and it’s a topic that has been raised in this House before. This case was extreme, because it was caused at a very serious time of our year, and it bothered many constituents in my riding. In these temperatures that are so cold, it doesn’t take long before the cold sweeps into your home and starts to cause problems with pipes that begin to freeze. I heard from some very concerned seniors that they didn’t know what to do, because if there were a problem, who would they call or where would they go?

That brings me to my point, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to touch on the topic of communications and the lack thereof on that issue. During prolonged power outages, information must be made available to the public. There are ways to ensure that the public is informed properly. A power outage hotline could be established and promoted. That way, our people would know that power is being turned on or being dealt with and that they don’t have long to wait. Or if there are problems, they can give them ideas and suggestions of where to go and what to do. This could provide some up-to-date information that’s very needed.

The facts are simple: power outages happen. But we do have distribution already in place. We have the NWT Power Corp and we have the Northland Utilities system here in Yellowknife. They could send out information pamphlets within their bills.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is a public campaign needs to be held, and we can do something very simple that means a lot to our residents. In times of crisis we don’t want to be hearing about the nasty stories; we want to be prepared in advance before they begin.

I will have questions for the Minister Responsible for the Power Corp to see if he will be willing to take on this initiative to make sure our constituents are informed properly if they need help.

Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

I would like to recognize my Constituency Assistant, Billie Lennie. I would also like to recognize, from Inuvik Twin Lakes, Doris Rogers, who did a fine job singing the national anthem.

I would like to recognize my beautiful wife, the one that holds the family together in our household.

There are many people I would like to recognize today, starting with some elders: Ed Jeske from Yellowknife, and sitting beside him is Vivian Squires. Welcome to the gallery. And a couple of constituents: Loretta and Dick Abernethy. I think they are here; they were a minute ago. And the Alternatives North crew, the very active and amazing volunteer bunch. I see some members here: Suzette Montrieul, Ben McDonald and Steve Peterson. There are many others. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a number of people — my constituents, staff and family: Dr. Ken Woodley, Ms. Roxanna Baisi, Chaka Rukobo, Sonja Boucher, Ken Howie from UNW; and also some of my staff and family members who make it possible for me to do the job here: Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, Greg Cummings; my Executive Assistant, Suzanne Desfosses; my Executive Secretary, Gail McCurdy; my Constituency Assistant, Carla Hanvold-Walker; and the best mom in the world, Mrs. Taejeong Lee.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of people I would like to recognize. First of all, I’d like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, a long-time Yellowknifer and hockey enthusiast; Mrs.

Vivian

Squires from Avens Centre; Mr. Todd Parsons, the president of the Union of Northern Workers; Lydia Bardak, a Yellowknife city councillor; Paul Reddy; and Dave Matheson.

I too want to recognize Todd Parsons, president of the Union of Northern Workers, and a resident of the Great Slave riding; as well as Vivian Squires, a resident of the Great Slave riding; and Lydia Bardak from city council.

I can't see Mr. Jeske, but I am very pleased that he’s here. I once was a colleague of his, and it was a great time to work with him for me.

I would like to recognize a couple of my constituents, Barb Wyness and Matthew Smillie, from the Union of Northern Workers.

I would like to recognize my sister, Judy Ping.

I would like to recognize and welcome the representatives of the Union of Northern Workers, and in particular — I don't have my glasses on today — I’m sure that's Roy Courtoreille up there, who does good work on behalf of the UNW in Hay River.

Like many of my colleagues here today, I would like to make a special mention of Mr. Jeske and his presence here. He makes every effort to show up at the start of each session. So, Mr. Jeske, thank you for coming.

If we've missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the House. I hope you're enjoying the proceedings. It’s always nice to have an audience in here.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions.

My question is directed to the Premier in regard to my statement considering the rate structure we have in the Northwest Territories, which is very unfair. In some communities you pay 15 cents; in other communities you pay $2.85. Because there are such vast differences in prices, we in the Territory have to seriously look at some sort of a system that's fair, equitable and affordable.

I would like to ask the Premier if he would consider the possibility of looking at levelized rates. It’s been done in other jurisdictions across Canada. It’s been looked at in the Yukon, Nunavut, Labrador and Newfoundland, and other places where we have isolated communities. It’s important that we tackle this issue in light of the financial situation we find ourselves in. This is something that we have to seriously look at.

I would like to ask the Premier if he, as Premier of the Northwest Territories, is willing, along with his Cabinet colleagues, to seriously take a close look at this matter and try to find a solution to this problem.

The cost of living is an important factor in the Northwest Territories, as I stated earlier. We do have to look at how we try to either slow the cost drivers that are involved in delivering energy in the Northwest Territories or, in fact, change the way we develop power.

There are a number of things we can look at, as I talked about: a continued expansion of hydroelectricity in the Northwest Territories; or, for example, when the Mackenzie pipeline is built, we can run gas in the communities and displace the diesel fuel that's being used, as a potential option.

One of the other areas, which the Member touched base on, is looking at how the rate structure is done. I know that was discussed in previous Assemblies, but we as the government of the 16th Assembly would have to look at how we address that in the Northwest Territories, knowing that the costs continue to climb in that area.

As we know, there have been efforts in the past to look at this issue. There was talk about a one-rate zone, but the government of the time fired the whole board of the Power Corporation, so I don't think you'll want to try that again.

I would like to ask the Minister: will he look at an alternative, a one-rate-zone system, and consider looking at a levelized rate system in the Northwest Territories so that it’s fair, it’s transparent and everyone knows exactly what the real cost is? More importantly, how we can afford power in our communities instead of continuing to subsidize this power arrangement where it’s going to cost the government in the next two years $11 million a year by way of a subsidy?

I think we have to find a better use of that subsidy than simply continuing to subsidize people’s power and bring down the rates. So will the Premier and his cabinet seriously consider levelized power rates?

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct that we do have to look at that rate structure. We do have an energy committee amongst Cabinet. They’re looking at the whole area of energy and how it’s produced and delivered, and that can be one of the areas they look into. Ultimately, it will come to this Assembly for a decision if we’re to make any changes, so it would have to be this Assembly that would make a decision for any actual changes.

Mr. Speaker, as a Member I’m willing to bring a motion forward if that’s what it’s going to take to get this government to move. So I’d just like to put the Premier on notice that I will be bringing a motion forward, preferably next week, on this matter, and we can at that time debate it in this House.

Time for question period is not to make statements. I didn’t hear a question there.

Mr.

Speaker, I referred in my

Member’s statement about one of the problems with the NWT Power Corp as I see it. We know there are consistently three problems, which are rates, as just highlighted by the other Member; reliability, as I suggested in my statement; and certainly communication, which has come out quite clearly in the riding in the last week.

To the third issue I’d like to ask the Minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation: would he look into setting up a communication strategy and plan so we can ensure that our residents can get timely information if there is a power outage, and if there is some need of urgency and they need to know what to do or where to go, they’ll have access to that information? Would the Minister look into that issue?

Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation operates in one of the most difficult environments with the cold weather, especially in this day and age. The Power Corporation also has emergency plans and policies. I would gladly look into this issue in terms of determining a type of emergency plan to have in place for long-term power outages in the communities.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll accept that offer of following through on that potential communication plan.

To follow up on the real liability issues I highlighted in my Member’s statement, some days we can see that after minus 40, just like Air Canada, they don’t seem to fly. I’m curious that the pressures of the southern-built power stations…. Maybe that’s the issue.

What is the reliability problem after minus 40 that our power stations seem to suffer from? And what is the Minister doing about that?

Mr. Speaker, the Power Corporation has a very good reliability system here. In all situations the corporation takes it seriously to review its operations, what happened, what went wrong. I’ll be happy to work with the Member and possibly the City of Yellowknife and the other departments he thinks would serve the people of Yellowknife in terms of letting them know, in terms of the power outage, where they can get hold of the appropriate type of people to advise them on the length of the power outages.

Just one last question, Mr. Speaker. As far as the communications regarding the reliability of the programs we offer — our power program, that is — can I get some feedback as to when the Minister can provide this communication

strategy? Would he be willing to see if he could provide it before the end of this session, which is almost three weeks?