This is great. This is the first time I had a set of questions back to back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make this very brief.
The prospects of a pellet mill at Patterson Sawmill in Hay River have been supported by this government by way of a study that has been composed. Mr. Speaker, just to make a long story short, the cost of the infrastructure and the operations, significantly the power, is a huge consideration in this. Although there is product out there to be harvested that could make the manufacturing of pellets in Hay River viable, the upfront costs and some of the ongoing costs would be cost prohibitive.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of ITI if there are any programs out there not as a loan but as a pilot project. Since we have now got government infrastructure that will be burning wood pellets in their boilers, we have some major work that is being done in converting the schools in Hay River off of diesel or off of propane and onto wood pellets. I would like to ask the Minister of ITI, is there any program currently available in this government that could possibly see the construction of a pellet mill in Hay River that I guess the financial viability would come in the ongoing product they would produce. It would not be able to carry a significant start-up cost. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, this government has taken the unprecedented initiative of identifying $60 million over three years in order to look at alternative energy opportunities so that we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. As part of that $60 million, we have identified approximately something in the neighbourhood of $4 million to $6 million over a three-year period to develop a biomass strategy and to implement that strategy which includes utilizing wood pellets and manufacturing wood pellets et cetera. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the feasibility study has been concluded, as I said. The ability of the business to support all of the initial start costs, which I believe would be in the neighbourhood of $3 million, this work has now been done with the support of this government. So going forward, what would the next steps be to see if any of the funding that Mr. McLeod has referred to could be allocated for the establishment of a pellet mill in Hay River? Thank you.
I should also point out that my colleague the Minister of ENR, who is not here, is the lead with regard to biomass and forestry. I guess the single most important requirement in this project would be the ability to secure a supply of timber. That would be the first consideration. Secondly would be power, as the Member has indicated. Thirdly, we think our tool kit of business programs would allow us to be able to work closely with the proponent so that we can provide funding or to work with him to identify and attempt to access other sources of funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have very recently met with the person who would like to be the proponent for this project, understanding, though, that it may need to be a government project so to speak, but then the economy would come in where we would have a savings on the fuel and the economy could be created by the people who would be participating in the harvesting of the material to make the wood pellets.
Mr. Speaker, this has been quite a long while in the works and I had just recently met with Mr. Patterson, Mr. Patterson Jr., and he had asked me to request the Minister if we could have a sit down, face-to-face meeting about next steps and how we can get what could be a very valuable project on the go. I would like to, at this time, publicly invite Minister McLeod to come to Hay River to meet with the proponent and the MLAs and see if we can get this off the ground. Thank you.
I’d certainly be quite pleased to come to Hay River and to meet with the proponent and the other MLAs and whoever else could add to the project, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
