Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I just want to be clear, this isn't for me, because I usually just power along on my own power.
The next one here is business support program. Can the Minister just elaborate on what that actually is and give me some examples? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the business support program. It's designed to help businesses in the Northwest Territories to implement renewable energy and efficiency projects. So I'm going to ask Mr. Jenkins if he can provide perhaps some examples on things that we've done with the fund. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Jenkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I don't have any examples that come to mind in terms of the project. We'd have to follow up with some specific examples for the Member. I don't have any athand that I can relay today. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The next one is the energy guide for houses. I see that again it's at $190,000 and then continuous. Has there been an uptake in that over the last two years considering people have been home and the increased cost of goods and building material and utilities as well? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, if you look at our energy contributions, you will notice that we in the past have gone from 190 to the actual of 150. So that just tells the story perhaps maybe it's not but the energy guide for houses, it's a program that we work with Arctic Energy Alliance, to be able to assist homeowners and businesses to be able to complete some of the energy efficiency audits. And I know, you know, it was brought to our attention on the floor at one point where perhaps where we've got an overtake in there but not enough capacity to be able to do the work. So I mean, we have that balance, and I know that's been a struggle for people who have signed up to be able to get a home energy audit. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I think that's an important area, you know, that some focus should go on just because of rising costs and, you know, in Hay River, for example, you know, last couple weeks ago, a lot of people got propane bills for a thousand plus dollars for a month. So, you know, it's getting a little bit scary out there for residents.
The next item is the incremental Arctic Energy Alliance programs. We showed revised estimates at 3,831. Now we're down to 1,585. Just explain that; thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If I can ask the Member to perhaps provide what page they're referring to and then I can it would be a little easier for me to go back to that.
Page 248 on the main estimates.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to ask Mr. Brennan to provide that information.
Thank you. ADM Brennan.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, so what the Member is referring to is a result of a recash flow due to our Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund.
So we had a fouryear agreement for low carbon LCELF program, and we've extended it by two years. So we've done a recash flow throughout the next two years. So that decrease that you're seeing is actually moving money into two fiscal years by upwards of $4 million over two years. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan. Members, can you please wait for your light to go on before you start speaking so it gives some time for the interpreters to catch up. Thank you. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I will.
The next item is Students Against Drinking and Driving. You know, we talk about drinking and driving. Is there any I guess program that's equivalent to that for drug use? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The Students Against Drinking Driving is a program that'd be able to support awareness to high school students in the territories so that they can make safer choices when travelling on vehicle or passenger roads or trails. Madam Chair, this is not a lot of money. We recognize that. But I mean, it is a campaign tool that we used in the past to be able to ensure that we don't have students drinking, driving, and provide awareness. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister, I think the Member was asking whether we have something equivalent for drug use and driving.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I will ask Jenkins to be able to see what we have if we're able to expand in this area as well because they're both very not good. Thanks.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Jenkins.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So obviously good point raised by the Member here. And, of course, this program is, you know, labelled Students Against Drinking and Driving but obviously the program itself really is to sort of promote driving under the influence. So whether that be alcohol or drugs. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The next one is there was a line item there for or there is one for Tulita Solar Project and, you know, that is done by the looks of it. And is there any other is there an indication that or is the department looking at any other projects? For instance, wind. Because Hay River being on the lake, it would be nice to see something being done with, you know, in respect to that in the South Slave. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The department, you know, we have an energy strategy that we need to meet. We are advancing some of the projects such as the transmission lines that's happening in the Deh Cho and perhaps the Inuvik wind projects happening in the Beaufort Delta.
The department did look into two wind projects in Sachs Harbour, in Norman Wells. Unfortunately, it was not feasible and which means there was not enough wind generation to be able to advance with some of these projects.
In terms of where the Member's coming from and looking at next steps, if there are any other projects that are happening, if I can, Mr. Jenkins.
Thank you. ADM Jenkins.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So we did provide some support to ARI for wind monitoring equipment, and there has been wind monitoring that's been done in 15 communities across the NWT. We did advance monitoring in Sachs Harbour and Norman Wells, and we're looking at installations there. Unfortunately, the data didn't support putting an installation to produce power in those communities in the end. So it's something that we're going to have to go back under our new energy action plan to look at; you know, are there other areas where we could advance these type of renewable projects. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, ADM Jenkins. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Madam Chair. I was interested in your biomass energy. I think that's $200,000 I think you have. It's supporting new initiative to assist increased use of wood burning technologies.
I'm just wondering if there's other departments that access this funding or your department helps other departments? And I'm speaking about like the Housing Corporation, and utilizing some of this. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member asked this question on the floor earlier and, you know, I'm looking at my colleague here from Housing and I provided her with some notes. I leaned over; I can't find them anymore. But there are the Department of Infrastructure works with Housing. We did 40 apartments in the Sissons. So I mean, we do continue to advance some of our projects together. I mean, all the departments need to be able to work together and advance some of these projects, not in silos, but altogether, and look at what's the best source of energy savings for residents, communities, and the departments as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Are any communities accessing this program and if you could get some examples. Mahsi.
Thank you. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, you know, we have done a lot of projects in the Northwest Territories. You look at some of the schools that are built, all new infrastructure buildings. We try and incorporate biomass heating as it's cleaner and it's better for the environment.
In terms of going forward, I'm going to see if Mr. Brennan can talk about anything that we're advancing, perhaps looking at other federal funding to be able to support more biomass in the territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Brennan.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So in terms of biomass, I think there's a couple of conversations going on there, is that we did support the Housing Corporation, as was mentioned earlier on the floor today, to install a biomass facility at Sissons Court with 45 units I do believe. But we also are work with a lot of our client departments Education, Health, and other areas to install biomass boilers into various buildings. And I don't the exact number of biomass boilers that we have, but I think that we have like seven district heating plans that are biomass. We have buildings in Yellowknife that are run by biomass and in most communities now, we have some biomass. We just recently installed one in the Inuvik Hospital, for example, two years ago. So we are doing biomass across the board. I think right now we have nine buildings that are either in planning or are in construction that we're adding biomass to as well. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
I think I wasn't clear on that one, but it's nice to know that you're working with other departments.
I was wondering if anyone else, besides government departments, access funding like this or you have funding for them, like community governments, community local businesses? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to ask Mr. Jenkins to see if he can speak about some of the partnerships and the building with other departments or other NGOs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Jenkins.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. So we do have a GHD grant program for government. We do have one for buildings in industry. That includes Indigenous governments. And these are applicationbased programs. And we do have a number of examples, not all of them are biomass of course. They could be solar or other type things but we have had projects funded under this for pellet boilers for schools. We've had them for wood heating systems for the Gwich'in multipurpose camp. So there's a number of examples there where we have funded broader than government buildings. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi for that. Mahsi, Madam Chair. There's a lot of little programs within here; they're almost kind of similar, they must be tied together somehow. But I'm just wondering about the NWT energy efficiency projects which has about $300,000. It's working with specifically, this one is stating it works with NTPC to integrate residual heat, variable speed generators and other energy technologies to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
I don't think I'm aware of anything like this. Can you provide clarification as to what that is actually doing? Mahsi.
