Mr. Speaker, climate change currently costs the Northwest Territories millions of dollars per year and a number of accidental deaths related to an increasingly unpredictable environment. Globally it is costing millions of lives and billions of dollars. Costs now extend to the loss of wildlife species, plants. It includes water contamination, infrastructure damage and so on. Clearly some provinces are moving forward aggressively and acting on this issue.
What commitments did our Premier make at the recent Premiers’ conference on climate change to act and provide leadership on presenting and adapting to climate change?
Mr. Speaker, the area of climate change, as the Member stated, is one that we had a discussion on, driven by the Council of the Federation of Ministers and Premiers. The Premier of British Columbia had hosted that climate change conference. We made a presentation on climate adaptation for the Northwest Territories. As the Member pointed out in his Member’s statement, we are feeling front and centre — although last week we seemed to be back into the days of cold weather in the North.
We have put forward a position that the country needs to recognize as we’re front line on the changes that are occurring. We need to have help in adapting to the impact as well as take a role in how we can lessen our footprints on the environment.
You know, I don’t doubt that we could use help, and everybody would like to minimize our costs and so on. But I think we have a huge potential to do lots of things ourselves. I am again looking for leadership on this issue. I am sure the Premier picked up a lot of things, with the sharing of ideas and so on.
What insights did the Premier pick up that will enable us to move forward with or without help from outside this jurisdiction, given that our population is quite concerned and the costs are accruing to us?
We have done a number of things. Past governments have, for example, replaced old appliances with more efficient appliances, the way we build our homes, the construction techniques that we use for public infrastructure, as well as some of our own transportation infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, I use the example of mitigating the impact of permafrost. We are putting SM insulation underneath tarmac in a number of our facilities across the North. We are trying to take those types of steps.
Other factors, Mr. Speaker: we have even initiated some work to be undertaken by Ministers within this government. Minister Miltenberger is the lead with ENR on climate change initiatives, including a number of departments. We are looking at the hydro potential in the Northwest Territories, and Minister McLeod is the lead minister on the energy file. We are taking those types of steps.
The Member talked about looking at the options out there. There are a number of jurisdictions out in front of us. Quebec, for example, talked about a carbon tax. We are looking at those types of initiatives here in the Northwest Territories as well.
Thanks to the Premier for that response. It’s great to hear about those things, and I am sure our public will be on board to help out with those initiatives.
I don’t want to cloud the issue of prevention or mitigation with adaptation. When we are spending money to change the way we build airport strips, that is adapting to the changes that are happening now. We need to balance that with efforts directed at preventing further climate change. So I’d like to keep those distinctions there.
I appreciate the moves that we’re making to adapt to climate change, but adaptation is basically spending a lot of money, because climate change is happening. Obviously the preference is to prevent that. So again, I appreciate those responses.
What aggressive action are we taking to take full advantage of the federal programs that are out there? By way of example, I had the opportunity to work with the community of Whati. I suppose over two or three years, that community had enjoyed about $750,000 to $1 million of support from the federal government. The early bird gets the worm. How are we being that early bird and getting support from the federal government on the issues of climate change?
Mr. Speaker, through our departments we’re working with the federal government on a number of fronts trying to take advantage of the dollars that are out there, and how we look at the developments or how we take part in trying to lessen our footprint here in the Northwest Territories in the sense of the impact on the environment. We’ve got our own greenhouse gas strategy and are building on that. The Department of ENR is, again, doing its work. As we set out our strategic initiatives, it’s another avenue where we as the 16th Assembly can further look at the initiatives that we want to undertake as a government.
Final short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Again, I appreciate all the initiatives that I’m hearing about here. Probably the biggest single thing we can do is levy a carbon tax or some way of pricing our carbon emissions so that our industry, especially large industry, will get on board. Are the Premier and his cabinet contemplating that move?
Mr. Speaker, along with the fiscal environment we find ourselves in, we also need to look at revenue options. As I stated earlier, we are looking at a number of those options. A carbon tax is one of those on a list that we would have to come back to this Assembly with to see if there’s support for bringing something like that forward.
