Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Bonjour.
Edlanet'e. That's language from my region here within Akaitcho. It's Chipewyan. It's “How are you doing?” Welcome to the Akaitcho territory.
Once again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to speak with you today on a topic of great relevance to us. We will take a bit of time to share some of our experiences with trying to develop a major infrastructure project in Canada's north.
In order to give you a first-hand account of development in the north, I'll start by telling the committee a little bit about who we are and what our project will accomplish in terms of broad and specific benefits. Then I will highlight a couple of key barriers that preclude economic development in the Northwest Territories. I think you will come to agree that our project is a stepping stone to sustainable economic development in Canada's north and is indeed part of the solution. This committee can play an important role in communicating the benefits of this project to your federal counterparts to ensure that this incredible opportunity and others like it receive the support they deserve.
About the Taltson hydroelectric expansion project, the project proponent is the Dezé Energy Corporation. Dezé is a unique collaboration, a Northwest Territories corporation owned equally by the Akaitcho Energy Corporation, the Métis Energy Corporation Limited, and the NWT Corporation 03 Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northwest Territories Hydro Corporation of the Government of the Northwest Territories, which is a crown corporation.
The existing Taltson Twin Gorges facility, owned and operated by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, is located on the Taltson River, approximately 56 km northeast of Fort Smith, just south of us, and approximately 285 km southeast of Yellowknife. The Taltson project would install a new stand-alone plant of 36 megawatts and up to 56 megawatts of energy, in proximity to the existing plant at the Twin Gorges of the Taltson River, and a 700-kilometre transmission line into the Slave geological province.
The Taltson project would supply clean hydroelectric power to the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories and provide a long-term revenue source to the project partners. Prospective power customers include three operating and one proposed diamond mine. Diavik, owned by Rio Tinto, Ekati, owned by BHP Billiton, and Snap Lake Mine, owned by DeBeers, are operational, while Gahcho Kué, principally owned by DeBeers, is a proposed project for the near future.
As a northern-owned and majority-owned aboriginal partnership, Dezé Energy is guided by the fundamental principle of respect for the protection of the environment, traditional sites, and activities of the aboriginal people of this particular region. The project benefits include that the project would be very beneficial to the Northwest Territories, with the potential to extend the life of the existing diamond mines, make future developments more environmentally responsible, and ensure economic benefits stay in the north for the benefit of northerners.
The project is economic, will spur further development in the Slave geological province, and will be a tremendous boost for the northern economy. It will spur 500 to 700 direct jobs, 230 indirect jobs, and 250-plus induced employments during a three-year construction period; produce long-term revenues to public sector and aboriginal government shareholders; and extend existing mines in the diamond reserves through reduced operating costs. There are also substantial environmental benefits from the Taltson expansion project: 100 million litres or 280 cubic tonnes of carbon dioxide carbons in GHG emissions will be reduced annually; it has a small incremental footprint on the previously developed river system; it is sustainable green energy, with a life expectancy of approximately 50-plus years; it will optimize renewable resources, with no additional flooding.
An extended life of the diamond mines means substantial tax revenues and economic stimulus for all levels of government in the region--for example, $1.1 billion GDP annually to the Northwest Territories over the last two years. The Northwest Territories GDP doubled between 1998 and 2004 as a result of the diamond development. And the federal resource royalties have been between $19 million and $147 million annually since 2002.
This particular economic development is much needed, Mr. Chairman, in our southern part of the territory. You take a look at what has been happening in the north in terms of oil and gas development, and the potential for ongoing development in that area is west of us. You take a look at the hardrock industry, which is north and east of us, and a little bit west. Those particular areas have been receiving a lot of attention and a lot of development has occurred over the last number of years. In our particular part of our region, there is renewable energy that we can utilize with very little impact and help the hardrock industry to continue developing for many years in the future. So it's a much-needed economic stimulus for our particular communities within the Akaitcho and the South Slave.
Mr. Chairman, our project is a stepping stone to removing three key barriers to sustainable economic development in the north. They include a lack of sustainable energy infrastructure, the high cost of energy and need to reduce environmental impacts on fossil fuel consumption, and the need to generate sustainable economic development from non-renewable resource development. All of these barriers present significant and lasting obstacles to economic development in the north that the Taltson project will help to address.
All these benefits will be derived at a brownfield site next to an existing power plant that will optimize—it's currently underutilized in the river system—and generate hydro power and displace diesel generation at the diamond mines in the Slave geological province. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and DeBeers all maintain a significant presence in the NWT and consume approximately 40% of the electricity now being consumed in the north. Because of the remote locations, they had no choice but to rely on mine-site diesel generation. The Taltson expansion project presents an incredible opportunity to change that. The project has the potential to generate long-term revenues from resource development, to create huge environmental benefits, and to ensure that future economic development can occur in a sustainable, cost-effective fashion.
Mr. Chairman, just to add to that, if you're not already aware, there's a lot of discussion in the north and a lot of concern with the declining of the caribou herds. There's a substantial decline in the last number of years. There's a lot of discussion about how governments and other stakeholders in the north are going to address this issue. This is a project that we feel is going to contribute in a positive fashion to ensuring that the environment is taken care of and that we're eliminating the burning of fossil fuels.
As you're well aware, whenever fossil fuels are being burned, deposits do fall on the ground, and in turn are taken up by animals such as the caribou. And we do believe that if they're eating such a food source out there that contains contaminants, it may be a contributing factor. We as developers believe this particular project is going to be a very positive step forward.