Ronald Bonnetrouge

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Mahsi to the Minister for that, but I think she missed the mark here, the gist of my statement. I am aware of what the government is doing. I see it. I worked in Infrastructure. I know what you've been doing in the new government buildings. You're converting. You're converting just government buildings, only governments. I'm looking at a big picture here, and I said it: where's our research and development to harness biomass energy for use throughout the Northwest Territories? That's why I asked if the energy guy, Mr. Jenkins, could provide us with what they see in this...

Yes. Thank you for that. It's interesting to note that you do have 14 settlement maintainers spread out throughout the territories, and I imagine they are in the smaller communities, not in the larger centres. The larger centres, they carry the operating engineers. They are the ones who deal with all of the heating appliances. I suppose, say you were in a community like a fly-in community, maybe Aklavik; somebody would have to fly in from Inuvik who is an operating engineer or else from Fort McPherson. I don't know if they have one there.

What I am saying is: can we get these settlement...

I think I was asking about the training component. You haven't touched upon that. Like, I made a big speech out of it.

---Laughter

I just wasn't sure what type of work that entailed and if the small contractors can access it. Anyway, I heard talk when I was working with Infrastructure back in 2018-2019 about MTS getting their own maintenance personnel. My question is: did that happen? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I got confused there because I see a line item of $1.7 million, and she is talking about $4 million here and there. I'm just wondering. It's the contract services on page 248, Madam Chair. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. We are using the GNWT staff, so we are paying back to the GNWT with that money. I also note, down on the contract services, what does that entail, that amount there, $1.7 million?

Mahsi. Mahsi for that. The other one I'm looking at is inspection services. We've got $1.6 million. What type of inspection services are these? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I am looking under the line item, compliance and licensing. That is a $3-million price tag. Can you explain what this line item entails? Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I have gone past what's there. I was asking a question. How serious are we, as the GNWT government, to look at harnessing biomass energy for the Northwest Territories moving forward to get rid of the greenhouse gas emissions? Like I say, we spend a considerable amount of financial resources buying fuels, paying for fuels. Are we going to get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Where do we have a line item within infrastructure for energy and strategic initiatives, energy department, that shows research and development, and are we going to be serious and start...

Mahsi, Madam Chair. What I notice in the main estimates is that the Arctic Energy Alliance is getting $1.6 million, and biomass energy is only getting $200,000. From what I am hearing and everything, we are getting pretty heavy on getting away from lowering our greenhouse gas emissions overall. It's not going to come overnight, but there were plans to bring those levels down overall. We spend a considerable amount of resources, lots of money, on fuels, whether it be diesel fuels or liquid natural gas, propane.

In the future, it looks like we are looking at biomass, whether it be wood pellets...