Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
I thank the Minister for that answer, and it's actually great to hear that the corporation is working with other departments on that and I think it's a good idea in working with the communities and moving forward.
The Minister actually talked about, you know, Colville Lake and spending $2.7 million, if I'm correct, installing batteries to make sure the solar panels hooked in there. Will the Minister look at the other smaller communities south to see if they can actually do that to make it more efficient for a community? Another pilot project, I would love to have it in my riding, but if we could do another community, a small community, in the south so that they can try this project to see if it's a cost benefit to them.
Mr. Speaker, I understand actually in Fort Simpson there is a solar panel system at the airport, which, admittedly it's quite small. I can't commit to entering into another pilot project at this time but I know we are considering how we can reduce the costs of power in all communities, and certainly we do want to get away from diesel.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to pick up on the Member for Nunakput's Member's statement and ask the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources some questions on traditional economy. I'd like to ask the Minister how much money is there in the traditional economy budgets, whether they rest in ITI or ENR? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Mr. Chair, the exact number that is in the budget I'm not quite sure of, but I do know that the fur advancement loan we paid out $408,000 for this year. But as for the exact dollar figure in the budget, I will get that number and I will share it with the Member, but it does rest in ENR.
Mr. Speaker, I'm hoping this is not too technical, but I'd like to ask the Minister: aside from taking kids trapping, what other programs are delivered under this budget?
Mr. Speaker, the other programs that are supported are the Community Harvesters Assistance Program, our local Wildlife Committee, Take a Kid Trapping as the Member said, and Harvesting Program, the Western Harvesters' Assistance Program, the Hunters and Trappers Disaster Compensation Program, and the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission coverage for resource harvesters. So again, that is a wide topic of areas that it covers, and I will get the exact dollar figure and share it with the Members.
Mr. Speaker, as a traditional economy, I'd like to ask the Minister what the full spectrum of supports are there for hunters and trappers?
Mr. Speaker, through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Program we provide support for participants in the fur industry; there's three elements to it. There's actually the Guaranteed Advance for Furs, the Prime Fur Bonus, and the Fall Grubstake bonus and these are very good programs and a number of harvesters out there take the government up and ENR up on these opportunities.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the House knows we have an issue with the numbers for caribou, and whether the caribou has moved further east or if the caribou are simply decreasing in numbers, I don't know, but I'm sure the Minister knows.
I'd like to ask the Minister if there's anything available to help the communities that traditionally live off caribou? If there's anything available to help those communities to go to where the caribou are to hunt for their communities?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is absolutely right, there is some concerns with the caribou and it's coming to a point where the caribou actually have no chance with all the technology that we have in getting out to the caribou and that's allowed their numbers to dwindle along with a number of other things, but there is some funding available to help community harvesters. As to the exact, I would have to confirm that, but I do know there's money available to help harvesters go and do a community harvest.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation some questions about resolving this issue. We've had a lot of discussion in this House and in the public around the issue of affordable power in the Northwest Territories; however, the debate has largely centred on the claims from NTPC versus the claims from ATCO, when the real issue that Northerners have on their minds is how to make power more affordable.
Now the Power Corporation mentioned systemic issues that drive up the cost of power, and one of those is a lack of connection to the continental grid. I'd like the Minister to provide an update on how NTPC is planning on resolving this systemic issue in the short to mid to long-term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister responsible for NWT Power Corp.
Mr. Speaker, connecting with the national or even international grid clearly would not be a short-term thing we could possible contemplate, as it would be a very expensive project to connect either through Saskatchewan or Alberta. There are costs, but certainly there have been talks at a very high level about that very project and we will be in talks with Saskatchewan as to the possibility of such a project proceeding; however, it is a project of great complexity involving several governments, also involving several Aboriginal groups on our side of the border and several on the Saskatchewan side of the border. So we are looking at this project because unless we have a massive population increase here the only way long-term to reduce costs would be to export.
Mr. Speaker, this government is engaging in three major transportation corridors; the North Slave Geological Province which we've heard about today involves the government of Nunavut and numerous Aboriginal governments as well. This is a multi-jurisdictional mega project. If we can do that why can't we do this?
Yes, certainly, Mr. Speaker, we are looking at these projects. All of these projects involve great complexity. It's not as though we've completed any of these mega projects. So I would expect as time goes on that we will have talks with Saskatchewan or perhaps other governments with a view to exporting power which is really the only way to reduce costs.
The Minister just said that exporting power has been the way to reduce cost. Does the Minister also agree that lowering the cost of power in the Northwest Territories would lower costs of doing business and provide more incentive for people to live, stay here, and start businesses, and for the mining industry to open new projects? Does the Minister agree that lowering the cost of power is a key economic concern for Northerners and for our economy?
Clearly, lower costs would be a benefit both to private individuals and to industry. Thank you.
So, Mr. Speaker, we've gotten some facts out here around a long-term strategic goal for solving this problem. We're not hearing that in the press. Will the Minister commit to making the Power Corporation's long-term plans for making our energy system more affordable through infrastructure development, through multi-lateral agreements with other governments? Will he commit to making that kind of vision public the same way he's countering Northland's claims in the media? Will he start talking about positive things and not just countering the opposition?
Mr. Speaker, I will promise to this House to talk about positive things.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Let's stay with the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. It's Friday. Mr. Speaker, I heard an interesting point raised earlier today and it was relevant to this number, the 20 per cent cap that would be put on communities in their ability to get themselves off of thermal energy.
I have heard that we want to work with communities, and I have heard that we want to get them off diesel, but now I've potentially heard that we're going to stop them in their efforts at 20 per cent. I'm wondering can the Minister provide us a little bit more clarity around that policy, why 20 per cent is the number? Does it only apply to thermal communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister responsible for NWT Power Corporation
They're the experimental and new technologies that are coming along, it is our intention of course to use those first in the thermal communities as we wish to get off of diesel power. But there are other initiatives. We are also encouraging people to reduce the amount of power they use to LED, more efficient refrigerators and so on, so we're hoping that the amount of power that they require is going to be reduced, and this 20 per cent figure which has been referenced several times today is a technical number in the sense that if you're going to have a mixture of diesel and solar, you can't go above the 20 per cent solar without expending a great deal of money for new systems.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the Power Corporation is trying to encourage residents of the North to reduce their power usage; however, in efforts that residents have done to reduce their power usage, we've actually heard the Power Corporation come back to us and say you're doing good, but by doing good, we're going to have to up the rates.
We've got to charge more; we have infrastructure to pay for. So, Mr. Speaker, is that the reason why there's a 20 per cent cap is because 80 per cent is still required to pay for the thermal infrastructure in thermal communities?
Mr. Speaker, the reason that the solar projects are capped at 20 per cent is that the diesel needs to run at the other 80 per cent. If they run more intermittently as I understand it, they become more unstable.
The Minister keeps referencing to solar only as the alternative source, but earlier it was noted that other potential alternatives energy sources that could be considered to help reduce diesel consumption in the communities would also fall under this 20 per cent policy. So just for clarification, if Colville Lake, as an example, was able to throw up a windmill tomorrow, hypothetically, and reduce their diesel consumption by another 20 per cent, would that not be allowed?
Mr. Speaker, one of the issues with solar is that obviously it's not sunny all year round. I would anticipate that if there was a system that could have proper batteries for storage of power or if the wind was so consistent that it provided power throughout the year and we didn’t need diesel at all, we would certainly contemplate that type of system, but currently the technology is not there and it's not cheap.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that I got an answer to the question. I've already gotten to the 20 per cent. If I found a way in my community to get my reliance on diesel fuel another 20 per cent off by putting up another alternative sources of energy, would that be allowed?
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, the problem is that that this 20 per cent was not simply dreamed up. It was a figure above which the diesel system became erratic or undependable. Now, if we had a system that provided 100 per cent of the power needs and we no longer needed diesel that would be one thing, but it would seem to me that a system that went up to 40 per cent, say between solar and some other system, would exacerbate the problem with the diesel system.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents entitled “Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2016-2017,” “Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2016-2017,” and “Serving Our People: the NWT Public Service Report 2015.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Worker's Safety and Compensation Commission.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled “Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal Annual Report 2015” and “Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2015 Northwest Territories and Nunavut.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Supplementary Appropriation No. 1, Operations, and Supplementary Appropriation No. 2, Infrastructure, both for 2016-2017, and Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?
