Definitions

1   In this direction:

"Act" means the Utilities Commission Act;

"home purchase program" means a program carried out by the authority to purchase, maintain, repair, retrofit, manage and dispose of property generally in accordance with the minister's letter;

"minister's letter" means the letter dated December 17, 2008, to the Chair and Director of the authority from the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources;

"net program costs" means the net costs incurred by the authority in carrying out the home purchase program, including, without limiting this,

(a) the HPOP-related costs and potential losses set out in Appendix 1 of the minister's letter, and

(b) costs incurred before December 17, 2008;

"project" means the Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement Project, as approved by the project certificate;

"project certificate" means the certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the commission under sections 45 and 46 of the Act, by means of the commission's Order C-4-06, dated July 7, 2006, to the transmission corporation to construct the project;

"retrofit" means to make or fund energy efficiency improvements to property.

Application

2   This direction is issued to the commission under section 3 of the Act.

Vancouver Island Transmission Reinforcement Project

3   (1) The commission must exercise its powers and perform its duties under the Act in accordance with the criterion that the carrying out of the home purchase program, or any aspect of it, affects neither

(a) the validity of the project certificate, nor

(b) the fact that public convenience and necessity continue to require the project.

(2) The commission may not reconsider, suspend, vary or rescind the project certificate on the basis that the authority has carried out or intends to carry out the home purchase program or any aspect of it.

(3) The commission may not inquire into, hear or determine an application or a complaint made by any person on the basis that the authority has carried out or intends to carry out the home purchase program or any aspect of it.

(4) If the commission receives an application or complaint on the basis that the authority has carried out or intends to carry out the home purchase program or any aspect of it, the commission must refuse to consider the application or complaint.

(5) If the commission makes a refusal referred to in subsection (4), the commission may not reconsider or rescind the refusal under section 99 of the Act.

Rates and regulatory accounts

4   In setting rates for the authority, the commission must

(a) allow the authority to establish a regulatory account for the purpose of recovering, in a subsequent period, the net program costs incurred by the authority during its 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 fiscal years, and

(b) ensure that the authority's rates for its 2010-2011 fiscal year and for every fiscal year after that allow the authority to

(i) recover the net program costs incurred in that fiscal year, and

(ii) recover a portion, that the commission considers reasonable, of the net program costs accumulated in the regulatory account referred to in paragraph (a).