Good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to the Chamber. Orders of the Day. Item 2, Ministers’ statements. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to provide my colleagues with an update on the recent realignment of the School of Community Government, located in the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

First started in 1999, the School of Community Government was established to suit the unique needs and requirements of community government staff. Programming was designed to be relevant, specific to the mandate of community governments and provide practical experience. Courses were developed in a modular format and designed to be delivered in a community or regional centre, thereby reducing the cost of travel and time away from family, home and place of employment. This approach was unique to the North and provided education and training opportunities not available through other northern institutions.

The model first put in place in 1999 is still in place today and has proven to be extremely effective in removing many of the barriers community government staff had identified in taking advantage of other educational opportunities.

Over the past years the School of Community Government has delivered training to more than 2,700 community government employees in order to build local capacity to deliver quality municipal

programs and services. The School of Community Government training is provided to a wide range of municipal staff, including mayors and councils, senior administrative officers, finance managers, lands officers, community firefighters and water treatment plant operators. The goal of the training is to build relevant skills and practical experience that community government employees can apply directly to their workplace.

By working with national and territorial partners, the School of Community Government achieves its objectives through an integrated training framework that is based on an assessment of community needs and priorities and delivered to an industry standard. Upon successful completion of training, community government staff participants achieve a recognized certification in their field.

Through a recent realignment Municipal and Community Affairs has established School of Community Government staff positions in four regional centres to continue to improve the school’s ability to build community capacity. These positions are assisting communities by developing focused training plans and through the provision of general support to community governments in establishing human resource development strategies.

As part of the realignment the department is focusing its efforts to support new community government responsibilities and authorities under federal/territorial infrastructure programs and on those areas that support health, safety and infrastructure responsibilities of community governments.

The School of Community Government will continue to work closely with Aurora College on shared course deliveries and instruction, program certification and facility use. This partnership is an important success factor that helps contribute to the goal of improving community capacity.

Members of the 16

Legislative Assembly have

emphasized the need for sustainable communities. This strategic realignment of training and development resources will serve to strengthen the skills and abilities of community government staff and in the long term will establish strong, independent communities.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi. Mr. Speaker, 2008 is the 40

anniversary celebration of Aurora

College. On September 12, graduates, faculty and supporters from past and present gathered at the Legislative Assembly to remember the past 40 years of the college and look towards the future. Throughout the year the celebrations will continue at each of the campuses.

The college has come a long way since 1968, when a single vocational centre was formed in Fort Smith. People travelled from all over the North, including what is now Nunavut, for the opportunity of adult education.

Now there are three main campuses in major communities, the Aurora Research Institute and learning centres across the Northwest Territories. The college has grown with the needs of northern students. Getting educated in the North will help Northerners to lead the wage economy in the Northwest Territories and be leaders and managers in all sectors of our economy.

The college offers a wide variety of courses, with subjects ranging from environmental monitoring to teaching and nursing bachelor degrees. Recently the college won awards for educational innovation for its diamond polishing program.

Mr. Speaker, innovations like the Mobile Trades Training Lab, the new residence in Inuvik and the new Underground Miner Training Program will ensure that the college keeps up with the needs of our growing industry and territory.

The future of the college looks bright. We should all recognize the important role that Aurora College and its graduates play in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 3, Members’ statements. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We all know that the Northwest Territories has some of the highest costs in the country. These high costs have a big impact on our cost of living. For example, in Fort Simpson the average personal income is around $45,000. The monthly cost of electricity and

heat averages around $600. This means that the cost to power and heat their homes is over 15 per cent of their income. People are struggling to make ends meet and falling further behind because of these escalating costs.

Mr. Speaker, during the last session I spoke about the high energy costs and the impact it is having in our communities. I spoke about the frustration community government leaders have with the cost of electricity and the management of the NWT Power Corporation. This frustration has led to the larger non-hydro communities like Fort Simpson, Norman Wells and Inuvik to consider a number of options, including finding alternate energy suppliers. If these three communities withdraw from the NWT Power Corporation, it could have a serious impact on the remaining NWT Power Corporation customer base and the overall operations of the NWTPC.

Mr. Speaker, community government leaders have met with the Premier, the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation, and the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board and discussed two options they would like the government to consider. One would be to treat every resident in the territory the same and bring in the one rate zone. The second option would be to sell the Power Corporation to another energy supplier with a capacity to develop some of the vast hydro potential in our territory. This alternative would allow the GNWT to rid itself of the debt load associated with NWTPC and lead to a reduction of electrical costs in the communities.

Mr. Speaker, the government will be reviewing electricity rates, regulations and the power subsidy program over the next year. We need to take the recommendations made by our community government leaders seriously and consider all the options when looking for solutions that will provide all residents with affordable energy. This needs to be done as quickly as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a fundamental problem with the mandate of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and the regulatory regime that it operates under.

Most of us do our best to reduce our power consumption for the benefit of both the environment — reduction of greenhouse gas emissions — and the consumer — less energy used means lower electricity costs — and we should be trying to

conserve for both of these reasons. The more we reduce our energy consumption, the less power we use. The less power we use, the more NTPC revenues drop. The more their revenues drop, the more riders they add to our bills. When NTPC cannot generate enough revenues to meet their expenditures, they ask for a rate increase or a rate rider to make up for lost revenue. The bottom line is that the dollar figure on our power bill goes up.

There is no incentive for an NWT homeowner to want to reduce energy consumption. Until we change this system, Mr. Speaker, we can never get ahead. Either the environment will take a beating or we will.

The government is reviewing electricity rates and regulation, as mentioned in Minister McLeod’s statement the other day. The calculation of NWT power rates must be completely revamped with a view to fairness and equitability.

Capital costs for upgrades to power generation in one community have to be applied to all communities across the territory, not just to the individual community where the infrastructure is built. Individual communities cannot handle the high infrastructure cost on their own.

We also have to look at revamping the corporation itself. NTPC must be renewed and reorganized. That NTPC is at arm’s length from the GNWT is a good thing, but I feel it has led to the mentality in the organization that they can do whatever they wish without consequences. There seems to be little concern for the consumers, for good business practices on the part of the NTPC’s leadership, little desire to increase efficiencies and identify savings in order to keep our power rates at a reasonable level.

A culture of efficiency and effectiveness must be instilled, with cost savings the number one priority for this company. For example, the corporation can eliminate management bonuses. It can stop the current massive advertising campaign that tells us how NTPC is going green and conserving. I have to wonder how much of those savings they are crowing about is being spent on advertising. The Power Corp can eliminate wasteful spending. I received a perfect example of such waste a few weeks ago.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. I received a perfect example of such waste a few weeks ago. It was a lovely colour report

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of minimal value — many pages

long and one sided printing; 30 pages of charts, one chart to a page. Several tables using three or

four pages would have provided the same information at a fraction of the cost. I really had to wonder what value that report had for me.

NTPC’s board must be told that only after they have clearly demonstrated that all avenues for cost saving have been explored will they be allowed to consider power rate increases for its users. As I said before, it’s the duty of the Power Corp to do everything it can to minimize the impact of power generation costs on the average Joe and Mary. Will that day ever come?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, power is an essential service that we all depend on, from heating our homes to turning our lights on, to maintain the community infrastructure and, more importantly, to generate the economic value we have by way of purchasing.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation has a system of establishing rates by what we call community-based rates, better known as postage stamp rates, which means every community that has a power generating system, regardless if it’s Northland Utilities or Northwest Territories Power Corporation, has to be assessed in regard to power rates. That costs in the range of $3 million to $5 million every two to four years.

Mr. Speaker, communities such as Colville Lake and Tsiigehtchic, which are paying in excess of $2 per kilowatt — in the case of Colville Lake it is $2.85 per kilowatt…. It’s not economically viable for one community the size of Colville Lake or Tsiigehtchic to be able to sustain the power usage in that community without realizing there has to be a better system out there.

Most jurisdictions in Canada have switched to what we call a levelized rate, in which the power is based on different types of power generation, be it diesel, hydro or other ways of generating power. This government has to seriously consider levelized rates, regardless of whether it’s going to be a rate for the Beaufort-Delta region, the Sahtu or the Deh Cho. All diesel communities will be on one rate system; the hydro communities would be on one rate system. We have to look at the savings this will bring forward.

Mr. Speaker, this government spends in excess of $9 million subsidizing power throughout the Norwest Territories. By reinvesting the $9 million and the $3 million we spent in regard to rate application, $12 million dollars could be reinvested in new energy projects such as hydro, wind, solar. I

think it’s something this government has to take seriously in regard to where we spend our money.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will be asking the Minister responsible for the Public Utilities Board questions on this matter.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to join my colleagues in talking about the high energy cost situations in our small communities, which Mr. Krutko, the Member for Mackenzie Delta, alluded to.

I would like to talk about the concept of privatizing our corporation. We have a Crown corporation. There are a number of arguments that say: don’t privatize; don’t get into community ownership; we’re too small or we’re not well equipped to have a Crown corporation go into the private sector. I think that’s totally wrong. I think you have to give the ownership back to the people.

There are major corporations now in our communities and our regions that could look at having ownership. There is the Gwich’in Tribal Council; there’s the Sahtu Corporation, the Deh Cho, Akaitcho, and right down the valley into even ATCO, which has major operations in the field that go into Alberta. They have a number of plants in the Northwest Territories that operate services. They are out of another jurisdiction; however, they can provide cheaper power in the Northwest Territories.

We have a Crown corporation like the federal government. When they have Crown corporations and they’re in trouble, they sell them off. They’d sell them off to the people who could do better for our people in the Northwest Territories. I know there’s enough initiative going on that hopefully in the next year, the government will come back with some initiatives in terms of how we reduce the power.

Sometimes in the small communities we just want to know that our power rates will be stabilized and won’t go up any further. There are people in the Northwest Territories who get assistance from the federal government in terms of their power rates. We also receive that assistance through subsidies. Yet we’re told that these subsidies are going to grow every year, and if we don’t do something, it’s going to be costing us more and more.

As Members we have to start prioritizing what is more important: infrastructure or subsidies? How do we best serve our people? Mr. Speaker, I think the option is to seriously consider privatizing the Crown corporation; give the regional communities and

individual corporations an opportunity to look and see if it’s feasible. If it’s not, then we certainly can have that further discussion. But I say give the power back to the people. We are the owners of the Power Corporation. Among us here, we represent the ownership, so I think we should have a further discussion on privatization.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Mr. Speaker, we are overdue for a thorough and independent review of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, its operations, its innovations and its response in meeting the evolving needs of communities and residents. It is my view that this review should include the potential need for a complete restructuring.

The Power Corporation is a utility — a public utility, an arm of the GNWT

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rather than a private

corporation, but this is not reflected in its attitude. It has been six years since the Public Utilities Board ordered the Power Corporation to file interconnection standards for net metering, yet we are still awaiting these. While millions of such systems exist around the world, there is yet to be a single residential grid size power system in the Northwest Territories.

Power rates do indeed need to be reviewed. There is some help required for some of our communities that are paying really exorbitant costs, but rates should be designed in ways that still reflect the local cost of power, and that’s going to be tricky. We need to focus on bringing down costs where they are high, and any new or additional revenue should be directed to achieving our multiple goals of reducing costs and greenhouse gases, increasing community self-sufficiency and developing our local economies.

Mr. Speaker, the government has embarked on a review of electrical rates in the Northwest Territories. However, I am concerned that reviewing the rates without a thorough review of our power provider will not move us forward on this issue.

Some communities, residents and businesses are beginning to propose, design and even implement their own power systems because of the intolerable costs and barriers they face. Increasingly, efficient appliances and homes are becoming available. These situations reduce power demand to the Power Corporation facilities and, given the stagnant response of our corporation, end up driving up costs for other consumers.

Rather than fighting these trends, we need a progressive power company that embraces new ways of doing business and that partners with individuals, businesses and communities

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one

that helps bring state of the art technology into service and strengthens community self-sufficiency by encouraging local energy solutions. Our communities provide their own water and sewage services, including billing and accounting. There is no reason they cannot be further engaged in the provision of power services.

Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Instead, the record reveals a corporation with little innovation, one that pays out the highest bonuses and compensations we have despite some attempt at curtailment by our Public Utilities Board, and a performance that is flagging with lack of leadership. Let’s grab this bull by the horns, do the review and structure our power systems to be responsive and responsible to the needs of our citizens and our communities. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people of the Nunakput riding face some of the highest power rates in the Northwest Territories. Living farther north than many other residents in the Northwest Territories also means that our lights have to be on longer in the winter and heating on in our homes for a longer time in the season. The furnaces are on for longer periods of time.

To put this simply, 700 kilowatt hours that are subsidized for Yellowknife rates by the Territorial Power Support Program are not enough. I know of families that are struggling to pay power bills for a modest three bedroom home. Overcrowding in many of our homes means more showers, more loads of laundry and television watching, which means higher power bills. As a father, Mr. Speaker, you know that one of the definitions of a teenager is a young person who does not know how to turn off a light switch. Everything that teenagers do…. The video games, watching videos, listening to music, learning on computers and connecting with the world around them all take power.

I did some quick calculations using information available on the NTPC website that shows the residents of Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok pay about twice the cost of power of Yellowknife once the

subsidy runs out. Sachs Harbour and Paulatuk pay about four times the cost. So for every $100 people in Yellowknife pay, the people I represent are paying $200 to $400 more for the same power amount. This amount is compounded by having to pay the GST on the total of the power bill. When I add this to the cost of home heating fuel, the cost of groceries, the cost of clothing your family and your children, I clearly see that the people I represent are struggling. I believe the power subsidy program is a good program but should be modified to recognize the actual power requirements required to run a modern household in different regions of the Northwest Territories.

I believe, Mr. Speaker, the amount of kilowatt hours subsidized to Yellowknife rates should be raised to 1,000 kilowatts in the communities that I represent.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Board Secretariat at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week in this House the lead Minister for the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee tabled the draft NWT Hydro Strategy and GNWT Energy Priorities Framework. Energy is an increasingly important issue for our constituents. How much do we have? How much does it cost? Can our environment cope with our demand? The GNWT also faces increased energy costs along with higher costs for services we already provide and strategic initiatives we would like to pursue.

We are looking at expanding our existing hydro development to offer electricity to industry. We are looking at alternative energy sources like biomass and wind. These are all worthwhile clean energy initiatives that can help address our energy needs in the NWT in the future, but they will not address the majority of our energy needs in the foreseeable future. Meeting these energy demands of our territory will require huge investment. With our own borrowing limits set at $500 million by the federal government and limited capacity under this limit to borrow, how will we take the bold steps required to do progressive things on the energy front?

The energy potential of our territory is huge. The Premier has made comments in this House about leaving no stone unturned to come up with solutions for our energy problem. I believe that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation should play a role in this solution. The NWT Power Corp sometimes get a bad rap, and rightfully so, for increasing our power rates when the costs to generate this fuel are going down or when the power consumption of our residents is also going down. I sometimes question whether we need the Power Corporation at all. They are supposed to be the people’s power supplier, yet there seems to be limited thought about the public as prices continue to climb and bonuses continue to be offered to senior staff. The business case that the Power Corporation is based on seems antiquated and in dire need of a complete makeover or a complete elimination and substitution with something unique, built by Northerners for Northerners.

Also, the fee structure is based on a southern model from decades ago, which may never have been the right model for the Northwest Territories. I hope the future role of the NWT Power Corporation will be based on a new approach to an old problem. I am encouraged to see talk of partnerships in the documents I mentioned earlier in my statement.

Partnerships can bring new ways of doing things, larger amounts of capital investment dollars and expertise in their respective fields. The NWT is growing in stature, and thinking only within our borders about solutions to bigger issues belongs in the past.

I will have questions for the Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very complex subject as we struggle here in the Northwest Territories to find the most efficient means to deliver reliable energy to the communities of the Northwest Territories.

Again we’re faced with the remote and rural nature of many of our communities, the far distances we have to haul fuel to feed diesel generators, the disparity that’s created when some communities are able to be supplied from hydro — all of this within the context of a relatively small territory in terms of population. We struggle with all of these things, but we need a very comprehensive review of everything related to the production, distribution

and creation of energy and power here in the Northwest Territories.

I’ve heard some of my colleagues refer to privatization. I think that we should leave no stone unturned. I think we should look at everything. We talk about regulation. We talk about a monopoly. We talk about community empowerment and communities taking on this role. We talk about a single rate zone, levelized rates, the overhead of NTPC, the fuel costs which are out of our control, community based rates and power subsidies. All of these are very, very complex issues.

Although in a community like Hay River, we are probably the envy of other communities when it comes to our power rates. I want to assure Members that even in Hay River the residents do struggle with the cost of energy and with our cost of living there. We still are a northern community. We have a very cold environment to deal with. I know that compared to Mr. Jacobson’s riding, maybe it sounds like we don’t have a lot to worry about.

An idea was brought forward — not my idea but one of my colleague’s — which I thought had some merit. Rather than raising the 700 kilowatt per hour limit for communities where the costs are higher than Yellowknife’s, perhaps we should look at the communities whose cost are lower than Yellowknife’s, and we should put a cap of paying the market rate up to 700 kilowatts. Perhaps again, this could be considered in a review of our power rates. Perhaps those communities which have the lower rate would be willing to pay a premium on their consumption over the 700

kilowatt hours,

which could be then redistributed to assist those folks who are operating on community based rates and very much struggling with their energy costs.