Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I actually purposely didn't try to say the name of the program earlier because I think I'm going to mispronounce it. But let me try. Wahilatoos is the name of the federal initiative. So this has come out even while we're waiting to see if the low carbon economy leadership fund will get renewed or well, when it will get renewed. Still hopeful on that. But this is what we've been directed to in the interim. Because that actually was, again, a significant source of funding that was helping the Government of the Northwest Territories to support programs...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there are a significant amount of sunsets that are taking place, and that is where the cuts are coming from.

There has been some funding, $433,000 in funding, for new initiatives. So it just reduces the scope of what can what is possible under the Energy Action Plan right now. Obviously subject to perhaps seeing a renewal, hopefully seeing a renewal of the low carbon or the LCELF funding that the Member was mentioning but, yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, yeah, this is something that I thought a lot about in the last few years, had a lot of hope that there would be an improvement in morale over the last Assembly, and then somewhere between multiple waves of emergency events and lockdowns and evacuations, that became very challenging and folks became even more stretched. And we wind up in the last while with employees either unable to do their jobs because they can't go into their workplaces, then, you know, publicly getting maligned for that, and then in other cases being asked to do even more even when they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have not had those kinds of conversations with the federal government, Mr. Speaker, nor do I nor can I say, really, how receptive they would be. The direction that we seem to be getting of late on areas when we do try to push the federal government for some awareness of the continued need for diesel in the Northwest Territories, in the North in general, tends to not be one that is received very favourably. So certainly can look at an opportunity to bring that forward, noting the realities of the North and noting the fact that some form of diesel is still...

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, Madam Chair, that misunderstanding's definitely mine but I appreciate the kind words. So this is a reduction at this point in this area that there have been quite a number of studies over the last many years at a number of different locations, to study wind in particular. Some projects obviously have moved forward, some have come back positively and others have come back to indicate that there's not a capacity or potential. And so at this stage in time, this one is slated for a reduction. And obviously if there's opportunities that come up specific to other projects...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that's exactly the kind of question that does need to be answered in this strategy, and it is one that I hope there's a lot of significant public interest in. I appreciate that there's political interest in it. Because that will be if we decide to move the needle on what the goals are and make them bigger and bolder, it means significant investment in energy infrastructure to achieve them, and it means being on top of new technologies and emerging technologies. So, for example, this afternoon speaking about renewable diesel but up to and including what...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the last update of data that I have dates back now to February, so I will have to go back and reconfirm. But as of February, there were already well into almost 5,000 applicants who had received their funding. There was still at that time, which, again, I acknowledge is several months ago, but there was still at that time about 112 evacuee income disruption applications that were in process or being reviewed, and another 120 or so on the evacuation travel support that were in progress or being reviewed. Often the same households or same applicant in these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, I have actually reached out myself to my counterpart in the Yukon, Mr. Streicker. We had a brief exchange on what efforts they might be engaged in with respect to renewable diesel. They so far have run into similar challenges as we have here in the Northwest Territories, which is, for one, not being able to find Arctic grade to do a pilot on or when we find it, for a small volume, it is extremely expensive. That said, obviously, Mr. Speaker, if we can band larger numbers together, it would be easier, and so Minister Streicker and I, I expect, will...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we made the initial application process last summer when the call went out from the federal government. We understood that was accepted back in September. Now, you know, yeah, why or sorry, yeah, so this summer I guess last year now and then in the fall, and we continued to follow up with, frankly, the assumption and expectation that given that the, you know, focus on the need for lower carbon initiatives, the focus and need and understanding on climate change and the need to be at the forefront of taking steps to address climate change, to be, again...

Madam Chair, the reason I stuck my hand up quickly is that in going through the fiscal sustainability exercise and the feedback that was received from employees, I do want to highlight that this is an area that we also heard feedback from public servants themselves. Thank you.