Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Dec 11/98) - The Northwest Territories Power Corp. (NTPC) is asking for a second chance to sign a franchise agreement with the village of Fort Simpson.

Pun Chu, the Power Corp.'s director of operations for the western region, along with the director of regulatory affairs and a rates analyst made a presentation to village council on Monday evening.

Chu asked the village to reconsider its stance on requesting proposals from other power suppliers, which, he said, would ultimately cost both sides a lot of money. Instead, he proposed that a team of experts be brought in to stage a public forum in January and address residents' concerns over entering into a franchise agreement.

"We'd like to pursue that," he said. "We'll come in and lay everything on the table."

Council had previously shown interest in a 15-year franchise agreement and a draft proposal was submitted to the Northwest Territories Power Corp. However, residents voiced a number of concerns about the deal at a public meeting in October.

A number of village councillors subsequently decided that such an agreement would be premature until all the options had been weighed. Council later agreed that proposals would be considered.

Chu said there are apparently some misunderstandings among the public over the way power rates are set. Comparisons have been made to Fort Providence and Watson Lake, Yukon, which, at the outset, seem to have lower rates. According to Chu, there are a number of variables to consider, such as the type of fuel involved and the size and age of the power plants in those communities.

He said some very involved research must go into these direct comparisons between communities and that data is sometimes denied by other power suppliers.

For example, he said Northland Utilities refused to co-operate when the NTPC inquired about terms of the situation in Fort Providence.

"It's not easy to get all that information," Chu said. "And we don't know (other suppliers') reliability compared to ours. I'm not saying we're the best, but, maybe, they have more power outages than we do."

Coun. Tom Wilson said it's imperative the NTPC comes armed with all the answers for the public forum because village council is under increasing pressure from community members who want to know which company will provide the most cost-efficient service.

Prevost added that council's greatest concerns lie in making the district heating system viable because a lot of time and money was invested in it. He added that rates and street lighting are also top priorities.

"I think the community has to benefit, not the Power Corp.," Prevost said.

After the NTPC delegation left, Prevost gave his report to council, which included an overview of his trip to Edmonton for the Meet the North conference. While there, he said he was approached by representatives from Northland Utilities, Nova, Enbridge and the NTPC. All we're interested in is putting in proposal calls, he said. He also had an Edmonton-based lawyer for the village begin drafting the call for proposals.

There are three potential scenarios, according to Prevost: the power supplier could purchase the power plant, the supplier and the municipality could each take 50 per cent ownership in the plant or the village could take over the plant and the supplier would simply provide the operations and maintenance.