Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement on the Energy Priorities Framework by asking the Minister who is the lead for energy about why transportation was completely missed out here. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every decade subsidizing highways, highway transport, and costs are continuing to soar. Greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to increase. What are we doing outside the box? Why aren’t we thinking outside the box, trying to lower our costs, coming up with low intensity greenhouse gas emission ways of transport and some long term solutions? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I guess I’ll go to Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a number of initiatives underway that deal with the issue of energy initiatives and also mitigating climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas strategy that is being developed by the government would be looking at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We all know that transportation is probably, as the Member indicated, the largest sector in terms of producing greenhouse gas emissions, so that is the area we would be looking at.
I’m afraid I cannot thank the Minister for that; I didn’t hear an answer there. Clearly, this is a source of greenhouse gas emissions. We are talking energy issues here. This is probably the biggest single source of increasing the cost of living; let’s put it that way. What are we doing to come up with new ways of transportation that do not require hundreds of millions of dollars of investment every decade in highways and so on and that can actually reduce our costs? What are we doing outside the box that is creative and is actually going to decrease our costs and emissions from transportation?
Mr. Speaker, we do have the ecoTrust. That was the program whereby we provided incentives to NWT residents to reduce their costs. In this case we were providing incentives to people who were purchasing vehicles that were fuel efficient, and certainly that is one area where we are helping people. The Energy Priorities document, we sent it out for discussion. We are seeking input from the general public, and certainly if it is seen as a gap, we would look at it. I should point out to the Member that with the ecoTrust program and energy conservation, our focus has shifted more to energy conservation within the home. That is where we are looking at providing most of our incentives.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for those comments. I don’t want to detract from the Energy Priorities Framework, because I think there is some very good stuff here. I think the Minister has pointed at the home environment and buildings. There are some very good things happening there. But as he has pointed out, transportation is the biggest source of many of our problems with our cost of living. So I’m hoping that some real outside the box thinking can be done there, some fundamental solutions.
One of the things I found missing was the development of local expertise on implementing some of these energy solutions that are a bit new. Perhaps the Minister could comment on what sorts of programs we will get going to make sure that communities have access to expertise for putting up solar hot water heaters or what have you. So I will just leave it at that and let the Minister use his imagination to come up with his ideas.
Mr. Speaker, that is an area…. We’re at a disadvantage. There are shortages, but we have been working with the Arctic Energy Alliance, which has been providing a significant number of programs to fill that gap. As part of our energy priorities this is an area we want to look at. As well, we will be working with the municipalities and the NWT Association of Communities so we can find ways to provide that expertise. Certainly through some of the federal programs there are a number of initiatives that could assist.
Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for those comments. In the area of natural gas to communities for energy supplies, I’m wondering if the Minister would commit to giving serious effort to working with communities to come up with some sort of ultimate solutions rather than these interim fossil fuel solutions that could prove to be very expensive — leapfrogging, as many communities are choosing to do, to a renewable energy source — or at least giving that some thought and investigation.
Making natural gas available for communities is an area that we’ve been pursuing for some time now. Right when we first heard about oil and gas coming back to the Northwest Territories and people talking about pipelines, we commissioned studies to look at the potential for conversion to natural gas. Through the environmental assessment process we’ve indicated the need for the pipeline to provide for outtake so that we can convert communities along the pipeline right-of-way to natural gas. This is something we’re interested in. Plus we’ve updated our studies that were done approximately six years ago, so we have more current information.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. A final short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks for the comments on that. I realize that they are narrowly economic, but I think we have many more win-win situations we could find here.
My final question is on the Power Corporation. Would the Minister commit to leading this government and doing a comprehensive and thorough review of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, their work on the energy front, the possibility of restructuring and so on, to address many of the fundamental issues that we hear so much about from our constituents?
The Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee is already working in that area.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
