Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 18/01) - The government will be thumping the hydro drum as convincingly as it can at First Nations assemblies this summer.
Resources, wildlife and economic development minister Joe Handley believes hydro power is the key to a cleaner, more self-sufficient North.
 Joe Handley |
Under a proposal it will be promoting over the summer, the government plans to offer up for development sites it has identified as having maximum hydro potential with minimal environmental impact.
Hydro generating facilities would be developed and owned by private companies, which would sell the power and pay a levy on the power they produce.
Part of the levy would go to the First Nation on whose territory the facility is built and part would go into a fund which could be accessed by the territorial government and all NWT aboriginal groups.
"We've indicated we would be interested in any hydro development in the North, at least to take a look," said Jerome Babyn, manager of Northland Utilities, a northern power distribution company majority-owned by Alberta-based Atco.
Babyn said Atco has done general analysis of flows along the Mackenzie, but will not be spending significant money on studies until it knows if and on what terms northern governments want to proceed with hydro development.
"What you have to do is look at the whole development and see what business case can be made," said Babyn.
Both the business and environmental cases the government is making for hydro development at this early stage are impressive.
The government estimates there's 10,500 megawatts of hydro potential on the Mackenzie River. Six existing NWT dams combined are capable of generating 50 megawatts.
Sites on five other rivers have been identified for run-of-river dams. Potential hydro revenue, based on conservative power prices, is $660 million annually, the government estimates.
Export is key to northern hydro development. The power requirements of the NWT's small population are not nearly big enough to justify the kind of development being contemplated.
Power would be exported to the south on a grid that would be developed in conjunction with facilities.
At a press-conference Friday, Handley emphasized the government is not talking about building a concrete wall and flooding huge areas of land.
"Generally what you are doing is taking it back to its high water mark," said Handley of the levels behind the dams.
Hydro is also far more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel-burning generators. The government estimates the country's greenhouse gas emissions would rise by 60 per cent if coal-fired generators produced the power being supplied by current hydro projects.
The government is hoping to get a general indication of support from aboriginal groups within a year.
Handley said construction of hydro facilities could begin as soon as three years if everybody agreed to it.
