Madam Speaker, during December's power outage in the city of Yellowknife, it became apparent that communications from the Northwest Territories Power Corporation did not meet its customers’ expectations or its own standards. It is our goal to keep power outages to a minimum. The corporation has taken

steps necessary to improve

communication during both planned and unplanned power outages in the territory and will continue to do so.

This incident made it clear that we needed a more coordinated,

timely and consistent approach to

communicating power outages. We immediately updated our communications protocol in response to concerns from our customers, and our new manager of communications will manage its implementation. The improved protocol sets new thresholds for the declaration of a Northwest Territories Power Corporation emergency as well as timelines and methods of communications that may include web notices, social media, radio, or even going door to door.

This protocol also sets the foundation for strengthening our relationship with our distribution partner, Northland Utilities Limited.

We will keep communications open before, during and after power outages, and wherever possible, we will coordinate our outage communications plans. This will give NTPC a more active role in communicating during outages in Yellowknife whenever the outage is the Power Corporation’s responsibility. There will still be situations where an outage is related to Northland Utilities’ infrastructure.

The Internet plays a major role in providing information to the public, and in late January NTPC launched a new customer-focused website that includes all pertinent information about outages such as who is affected; the cause, if known; and an estimate of when power will be restored. We will also be posting updates on social media before the end of next month.

Our ultimate goal is to avoid power outages altogether. NTPC is researching the possibility of investing in a large battery at the Jackfish plant that would provide a 15-minute window to bring additional power generation on-line without the customer losing power. This could cut the Yellowknife outage rate in half, but it would be a

significant investment and we need to do due diligence before making that decision.

In the meantime, NTPC continues to improve its overall communications to meet the ever-growing and changing needs of its customers. Along with power outage information, conservation information and being able to apply for NTPC jobs, the new website will soon provide the option for customers to pay their power bills on-line as well. Thank you, Madam Speaker.