Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, my questions are also for the Minister of Infrastructure, and I appreciate the discussion that he and my honourable colleague from the Sahtu just had. Let's talk about transformational change on reducing gas emissions. Given that our territory's major economic growth potential hinges on new sources of carbon-free power, Mr. Speaker, does the Minister agree that Taltson expansion is critical for not only just our economy, but also for meeting our goals with regard to climate change? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we talk about Taltson, we know it represents an excellent opportunity to develop clean, renewable energy and power, current and future industry in the Northwest Territories. Some Members may disagree with that, but that's my position that I take. As the Member knows, industry is currently responsible for 50 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories. Clean power from the Taltson will allow us to fully meet our Climate Change Strategic Framework target and reduce emissions by 517 kilotonnes by 2030, and meet our Pan-Canadian Framework that we've signed onto. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you to the Minister for that reply. I really appreciate that he described the urgency, in fact, behind having to invest in Taltson. Can the Minister then indicate whether developing the business case for Taltson expansion, is it his and the department's number one priority?
As I previously said, developing a Taltson expansion is a priority of this government. Yes, finance is important for this project to go forward, but we are also undertaking the feasibility and development work to understand this project, and the project's economics; that is stuff that we're working on. Equally important to that, to develop this type of project we have to have the right Indigenous governments on side and stakeholders to be with to us help us support this project. The federal government, I believe, is fully supportive of Taltson moving forward, as they've had other legacy projects in the Northwest Territories that helped supplement development in the NWT.
Earlier in his other role, the Minister spoke about how we have a strong story to tell and we're going around the globe pitching the story about the Northwest Territories being a great place to invest, and he just acknowledged that the federal government may very well be interested in investing in Taltson. So it would be nice if the Minister would clarify a little bit more if the Taltson expansion is, in fact, a federal priority, and will they invest in building and constructing this hydro project?
Yes, I believe supporting the hydro development is a priority to the federal government. The party under the pan-Canadian framework is to support clean technology including hydro and transmission development. In fact, if you look at the NWT appendix of the framework, you'll see that the federal government committed a collaboration with the Northwest Territories to the Taltson expansion.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
