Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to clarify that under division management, there's a huge jump in the budget line from 20232024. Well, the original main estimate's $361,000, and then by the end of last year, we had $6.5 million, and now this year we're looking at $7.265 million. Can the Minister clarify what was the cause of this big jump in funding.

Okay, and thanks for that. I mean, recognizing some of the challenges, has the Minister had any conversations with the federal government regarding both the potential to fund renewable diesel projects or ways to incentivize the production of Arctic grade renewable diesel? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a question on the overall active position summary. So when I was looking at records it was actually a CBC article about the growth in the public service since about 2018, I noticed in particular the Department of Finance, in 2018, had about 357 staff and then it grew to about 490 staff, and now it's sitting at well, for this coming year, 563 staff.

Can the Minister give some explanation of why the Department of Finance has grown from 357 staff in 2018 to 563 now? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for everyone's patience and to Mr. Speaker. So my questions are for the infrastructure Minister. Has the Minister looked into what the Yukon is doing in terms of piloting renewable diesel and considered possibilities of working together with the Yukon to get a pilot project off the ground here in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And so is the subsidy rates for each customer, is that determined in collaboration with the Public Utilities Board or is it completely separate from the Public Utilities Board's role their role in determining rates?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I want to speak about renewable diesel, which is a very promising clean energy technology that could be a game changer in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and in helping us keep up with the global shift away from fossil fuel technologies.

Roughly 80 percent of NWT emissions come from the use of diesel. Transportation, particularly transport trucks and mining equipment, account for almost half of our emissions. And it's just not realistic to think that we could ever electrify all transportation routes across our remote communities and remote mines...

Thank you, Madam Chair. That was just the clarification I needed. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So under the highway operations budget, we've got $108 million for this coming fiscal year. Is any of that budget offset by federal funding? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I am concerned you know, I don't know much about this new federal initiative, but it sounds like it's something that would be opened up to northern and Indigenous communities across the entire country and that there's no guarantee that any of our NWT communities would, you know, get funding approved or, you know, we're just another applicant. And one of the big advantages in the community government retrofits program that Arctic Energy Alliance was delivering is they were able to do some project management, project coordination, they were able to do energy audits...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So a quick opening comment, a little bit earlier the Minister mentioned that she doesn't necessarily believe the solution to reducing our diesel dependency is through bits and pieces. I think there's a larger argument to be had here over, you know, the effectiveness of the big mega projects versus the small projects, and it's not necessarily black or white certainly. But I think a lot of the work that, for example Arctic Energy Alliance is doing is, you know, bits and pieces, but it can be incredibly both cost effective and empowering to people and communities in terms...