Inuvik (Apr 18/03) - The minister in charge of the power corporation would like to see a levelized rate for the territory but can't fight cabinet.

Joe Handley

Joe Handley said he has been directed by cabinet to wait until a discussion paper has been completed on territorial energy but it could take months or possibly into the next government until that is complete.

The levelized rate, as the Yukon and Alaska have and was suggested in the Robertson Report, would have put the cost of electricity at 23.21 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), but cabinet pulled the plug on that pricing scheme.

"The direction from cabinet was that we not look at a single rate zone; that we continue to propose a community-based zone structure," Handley said.

"That's also the recommendation from the communities who are getting their power from hydro."

The argument in communities not on hydro is that customers getting cheap hydro are enjoying that benefit at the cost of all taxpayers who paid for the Snare and Talston hydro systems.

"That's right and we are all equal owners of the power corporation," Handley said. "It is unfair to communities where there are higher costs in generating their electrical power."

Outside of political pressure, the thought is that if electricity is cheap, people will be wasteful.

"It comes back to the view of some people that if you have one levelized rate, then people would tend to waste power, whereas if you're from a community where there are low power rates," he said.

One of the people making that statement is Dennis Bevington, special advisor to the premier on energy.

Bevington is working on the new energy strategy for the government.

"As minister for the power corporation, I'd like to look at it right now, but my hands are tied by cabinet direction until that energy strategy is complete,"

Another argument for the levelized rate says that the costs of energy should be looked at with the same consideration as health care or other services.

"I've used that same argument; just because it costs more to provide health or to provide education, in some communities than it does others, doesn't mean that you give those people less quality of education or charge them for it," he said.

"Everybody deserves equal access and equal rights to programs and services -- especially when it comes from a corporation that we all jointly own."

Handley said there are no plans to change the Territorial Power Support Program in the immediate future.

"The subsidy will continue," Handley said. "I can't speak for the next government, but for this government's term, all the non-hydro communities will be subsidized back to the Yellowknife rates."

"There's been some general discussion about changing it," he said.

"(Bevington) would like to see the number of kilowatts lowered and that would encourage people to economize -- I don't share that feeling."

"In some it should be lowered and in others it should be increased."

He said there has always been a concern having the same number of kilowatts assigned across the territory.

"It's not an issue in Fort Smith, where people are on hydro and they have the benefits of being further South," Handley said.

"It's not equally fair and I would suggest that it is something that has to be looked at."