Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask questions to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. There is an urgent need for an improved effort towards a new and well-founded Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan. I have mentioned that feedback from the January round of consultations was not positive. Senior people were not there. There were no clearly costed proposals to review and it was short notice.
Mr. Speaker, essentially we hauled our partners in to show them a blank page. I am wondering what is the Minister going to do to get this potential train wreck back on track. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Truly, the Member’s glass is half empty as it pertains to this issue. If I could just very briefly touch on the fact that, in the life of this government, we put $60 million into alternative energy, into biomass, hydro, solar strategy, Water Strategy, wind, geothermal. I think we have done very good work in recycling. We have redone building standards. We have projects all over the place on the ground in our own buildings in communities. We have worked with all of the communities to look at energy plans. We as well committed to redoing the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. That work is underway, clearly not up to the Member’s standards.
I am listening to the Member’s comments, advice and feedback. We are making note of those and we are going to be adjusting as we move forward here to make sure that is an effective process. We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that this Assembly has done an enormous amount of work in this area of greenhouse gases, our carbon footprint, energy efficiencies and sensitivity to the environment. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, and enjoyed benefits along the way, I am the first to admit, and I don’t want to detract from the work that has been done and the dollars that have been saved and so on. Put that in perspective, of course, is an important part of the equation. We have had very modest goals and we have achieved those very modest goals, I think. We are waiting for the evidence to accrue there, but I am pretty sure that is happening.
I would like to compare cases, Mr. Speaker. We have a gas pipeline of questionable economics four years down the road, maybe, and we seem to know every economic fact down to shoe sizes. We have a Greenhouse Gas Strategy that was out of date when it was printed, no omission reduction targets, no costing and no plan. We have all the time in the world for increasing greenhouse gas production and none for avoiding the climate change they cause. The Minister understands the consequences of change in climate. Can he assure us that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy will balance this equation? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the final Greenhouse Gas Strategy would be a product of this government, this Assembly. The Member sits on the Climate Change Committee that has had a hand in this to a good degree. We have to make sure that the products that comes out of this Legislature that are put forward into this House reflect the consensus that we can reach on going forward on a territorial-wide Greenhouse Gas Strategy. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister mentions the Climate Change Committee. I think we would agree that, in fact, we have been pushing for the work to be done so that this consultation can be meaningful. That includes listing the tools and determining doing the analysis to determine what those tools can achieve us in terms of greenhouse gas reduction. Consultations are not showing if that work has been done. Can the Minister assure us that work being done will be shortly presented to people for some real consultation to finally begin? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we have embarked on a process that will result in a Greenhouse Gas Strategy. We are listening to the feedback we get in this House and other venues and making note of that. We want to have the best, most comprehensive process possible so that we end up with a product that will have some meat, some substance that will address specifically recommendations going forward, targets we want to achieve and hit and how we are going to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s status report indicates that the goals, objectives, principles and targets of the strategy need to be revised and clearly articulated. That work had not even started, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister promise to devote the limited time remaining in this mandate and sufficient staff resources to assemble the full set of facts, tools, analysis and consultation to at least set up our successors with strong recommendations in our transition plan? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Member that every staff member in Environment and Natural Resources is working flat out on a whole host of issues, including this Greenhouse Gas Strategy, and the folks that are working on this strategy are fully applying themselves with their shoulder to the wheel, their nose to the grindstone and unremitting efforts to bring this process to a successful conclusion. I will commit that we will have a Greenhouse Gas Strategy at the end of the day that will hopefully meet the very high standard that the Member has set for himself and all the rest of us mere mortals. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
