That would be me. That was such a good statement from my colleagues, thank you; I was wrapped in awe.
Last night a nearly four-hour power outage during temperatures as low as minus 25 occurred occurring our proceedings in this chamber, Mr. Speaker, interrupting families just as they were sitting down to dinner and affecting restaurants and businesses just as they began serving their customers at peak hours.
I want to thank the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation for providing timely updates which were greatly appreciated by my constituents. I also want to thank NTPC and Naka Power technicians for working hard to bring our power grid back online, and the City of Yellowknife for operating emergency warming shelters and providing traffic control. But most of all, I want to thank residents of Yellowknife, Dettah, and N'dilo for their patience during yet another frustrating outage.
Power outages are no longer inconveniences, Mr. Speaker. They are occurring more frequently, up 30 percent on a five-year average, and are both serious financial drains on the economy while simultaneously posing a direct threat to the safety of homeowners. I've previously told this House about a family in my riding who suffered a catastrophic house fire due to a blackout and that a year later still have no home to call their own. Businesses have reported single incidents where power surges are or brownouts have caused thousands of dollars in damage to specialized kitchen equipment and POS systems. The Yellowknife chamber estimates that a full day outage affecting both power and communication lines results in the GDP loss of $4.75 million. And another example in the South Slave region, a hand games tournament lost $5,000 of food due to a prolonged outage with no backup refrigeration. And last year, a NACC performance meticulously planned was cancelled when the lights went out just before the doors opened.
While this Assembly had backup power, most homes and businesses do not. While we as Members were in a heated building with the lights on eating our catered meal, many families did not have the power to cook food for their children.
Northerners want answers but more than that, they want meaningful solutions that reduce these outages and give confidence in our power system. They want to see a real plan, and they want to see it now. An hour's long power outage from the NWT capital on budget day, if this is not a fitting metaphor for how we're doing as a territory I don't know what is. Thank you.