Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask what work has been done to get the process on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy, the new one we’re expecting for next April, started. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been work done. Initially, our Climate Change Committee has been pushing on this. The departments have met. ENR has pulled together the initial discussions to lay out the plan for consultation that will occur in the coming months. I’d also point out that there’s some related work that’s going on that could have a bearing, given some of the topics of discussion.
As we look at the paper on the tax system and tax shifting, in that particular document we talk about and raise a number of issues that are tied to this particular Greenhouse Gas Strategy as well, or could be, and that’s the whole area of what level of involvement are we prepared to contemplate if we look at tax shifting with targets, carbon taxes, that whole debate and discussion. So there is a significant amount of work that’s going on in this area. Thank you.
Appreciation to the Minister for those comments. Obviously he’s been thinking about this. How does the Minister see this unfolding so that the public is aware of what’s going on and the process for consultation? Thank you.
Both of those initiatives I talked about will be put through a process where the documents will be prepared and put out for discussion, initially, and feedback. We’ll be working with committees, of course, and we’ll be looking for that feedback in a timely way, making sure that we link all the different initiatives that we do have in regard to the renewal, and I would assume expansion and enhancement of the Greenhouse Gas Strategy so that it looks outside of the internal look at government. Thank you.
Again, thanks for those remarks. I’d like to, sort of like the Biomass Strategy, a great strategy, I agree with it, but there are no targets, there is no schedule for implementation. So I’m wondering if the Minister would commit to putting this process down on paper with the targets, the time targets and achievements that we can expect through the years so that we’re, indeed, coming in on schedule and bringing that to committee, say, when we meet at the end of June or sometime that’s convenient and not too far down in the year. Thank you.
We can talk about the process. I would suggest that we have set a whole host of targets in terms of actual conversions to biomass, both within government and outside of government. We’ve targeted money, we’ve targeted resources, and we’re looking at projects across the land as it pertains to biomass and a host of other alternative energy ways mainly through the annual business planning process. Now, if there’s a need to put those numbers into a different form and possibly add to them, of course, we would be willing to have that discussion with committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member one final supplementary question. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again for that commitment. I think it would be good and I’m speaking, really, here, of the development of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy to have a specific timeline laid out for this process. I know public consultation is difficult, especially on an issue like this. It’s important to everyone. So I think that would be helpful and highlighting where and how MLAs could have early input into the process and so on. So I think that would be useful. Thank you.
I concur with the Member. Thank you.
