One of the great adages of the previous century was “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. It means take what someone is offering you and leave the details alone, although they may make the difference between a profitable outcome and a complete liability. Case in point for me has been the Taltson Expansion Project.
Across this country, hydro has fallen out of favour. The last two hydro schemes in Canada — Muskrat Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador and Site C on the North Peace River — have had unbelievable cost overruns. This before the cost of borrowing money went through the roof. Site C’s original projected cost for a kWh (kilowatt hour) was about 10 cents. With a near-doubling of construction costs and the higher interest rates associated with that, the likely cost per kWh is in the 25 cent range.
Ratepayers on the hook? You bet!
Now look at the Taltson expansion, the costs of which have been held a secret even from our MLAs who ultimately are responsible for it. Former Yellowknife North MLA Rylund Johnson had a total right to be frustrated over this situation in his final statement in the legislature. What are we doing supporting a project that will be much more costly than the failure in southern Canada that is built in the industrial heartland of B.C.? Where are the customers that are willing and have the need to pay for this boondoggle?
Surely, as an MLA candidate claimed at a debate in Fort Smith, “The feds will give us the money for the project”.
Nice thought — perhaps Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will want to stretch out the largesse for a project that clearly is poorly conceived, without a clear future and has alternatives that are likely more attractive. The Office of the Auditor General and federal bureaucrats are very capable of dealing with the numbers on this idea.
So what were the feds thinking about this when they very generously gave over $18 million for feasibility on this GNWT priority? In a minority government in Ottawa, $18 million to the NWT keeps the facade on the wishes of their junior partner, but is far from the billions of dollars to make it a reality.
The problem with this is obvious: it is enough to keep our GNWT tied to the idea, our Department of Infrastructure unable to look at alternatives to this grand scheme, and a general malaise with our efforts that should be going into other renewable energy efforts. There are alternatives that are badly needed that can make a difference to the crushing cost of energy for our citizens from Ulukhaktok to Fort Liard.
We are in splendid isolation in the NWT, far from massive electrical grids or natural gas lines. All our settled areas and industrial sites will always require complete backup from stored energy generating plants at every location. Hydro from single-source grids is not secure. The events of this summer with low water on the Snare River and burned out transmission lines on the under-repair Taltson grid demonstrate to us the importance of this fact.
It is not good enough to throw water on others plans without offering any explanations that can move us in a sustainable direction.
Next week, this column will offer some alternatives.
—Dennis Bevington is the former MP for the Western Arctic (now NWT) and is a renewable energy advocate.