Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When is enough enough? Last night the capital plunged into darkness for three and a half hours at minus 25. In the North, where would you ever deem power a luxury? It's the difference between a safe home and a public health emergency.
Mr. Speaker, when the lights go out at these temperatures, the clock isn't just ticking; it's counting down to a potential catastrophe. Yellowknifers are demanding explanation, reasons, why such failure happened. Mr. Speaker, was it an unforeseeable failure? Was it human error? Or was it just simply the system is buckling because of the weight of inefficiencies and the process and programs and equipment is just too old?
Mr. Speaker, I don't doubt for a moment that the crews on the ground were working as hard as they can, but I do doubt the plan, or lack thereof. It took nearly four hours to restore the power in this city, Mr. Speaker, life-threatening cold evening. Our contingency plans shouldn't be prayers. They should be printed on paper, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is well beyond an inconvenience. Failure has carried hidden costs, Mr. Speaker, we should speak about. You know, it doesn't show up on your utility bills, Mr. Speaker. It's a smack in the face of things like businesses who have to struggle day-to-day to get ahead. Fried equipment fries their POS and surges their power equipment, Mr. Speaker. Lost revenue and labour, as pointed out by my colleague from Range Lake, that the Yellowknife chamber has pointed out. Insurance nightmares of covering these things.
Mr. Speaker, if they're all deemed an act of God, what do we do? I call it a failure of service by the power corporation, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we're all tired of the northern premium we pay for the highest power rates in the country, Mr. Speaker. But this situation is like we have a dialup on a fibre optics world.
Mr. Speaker, these inefficiencies need to be revisited. I am calling that the government create a business management and recovery fund. Mr. Speaker, it's a no hassle equipment replacement process, direct reimbursement for surge damage, Mr. Speaker. And I am also saying that we should have operation credits for losses created by these things over two hours during extreme weather, Mr. Speaker. The power corporation needs to take true responsibility because they are seriously mandated with our trusted responsibility and safety of Northerners. There's hybrid energy management solutions out there, Mr. Speaker, and as such we will talk more about that later. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.