Frame Lake, thank you. It's okay, the other chair get that one mixed up too. So does the Speaker, for that matter. There's a lot of lakes in Yellowknife.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll just say, you know, if the Minister needs some comforting words, it can just be that, you know, MLAs are putting a fire under her and so if she's feeling like she has to transfer that to the federal minister, I just want to kind of provide my encouragement also on that one. This is something that's important to our communities and our response to climate change. So thank you, Madam Chair. That's my comments on this page for now. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Energy poverty, I could show my heating bills for the last two years if you want to talk energy poverty. But thankfully, thankfully, IRC is taking a risk in developing some natural gas up there, so we may get some relief in the near future. That's not my question, and I'm not trying to do a Member's statement. But it popped in my head when I saw the term energy poverty. I'm like, yeah, you know, I got ten minutes.
It's all yours to use. All yours.
I wish we had some clean natural gas somewhere near Inuvik we could access. That's not my question, I apologize. It's late, it's been a long week.
I'd like to ask the Minister, the $70,000 for the ARI energy projects. Is that a sunset clause, or are we just done studying wind in Inuvik given the magnitude of our last windmill project up there?
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there is still work happening. It's still in the budget. So I'm just trying to see if I have a detail on what the current I don't have detail in front of me on what the exact programs or projects might be for the coming year, but there is still money in the budget ongoing for academic research related to well, it would be related to the 2030 Energy Strategy. I can certainly get details. Or sorry, Madam Chair, I just want to make sure I'm looking at the right alternative. Is it the top line?
Oh, there we are. Sorry, Madam Chair. I had the wrong one here. Just give me a moment.
Aurora Research Institute, that one is yes, that one is not currently here, but I don't know that we're entirely done any of the work under the energy strategy. It's just a question of figuring out what the best usage of the funds would be. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you. Sorry if I wasn't clear in my question, Minister, I apologize. No, it does say that it was to the testing of the wind potential of specific sites of interest to the GNWT. I guess is what that specific funding, that $70,000, was used for. So I guess my question was is this out of the budget, I didn't know if it was a sunset clause, if it was a grant, or if it was just we're done studying wind in Inuvik because it's expensive to build windmills up there?
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, Madam Chair, that misunderstanding's definitely mine but I appreciate the kind words. So this is a reduction at this point in this area that there have been quite a number of studies over the last many years at a number of different locations, to study wind in particular. Some projects obviously have moved forward, some have come back positively and others have come back to indicate that there's not a capacity or potential. And so at this stage in time, this one is slated for a reduction. And obviously if there's opportunities that come up specific to other projects, there continues to be planning dollars in our capital fund in order to look at the potential with either the studies that exist or, again, moving forward with the energy strategy, moving forward with other capital projects, they could probably find themselves within the planning and studies and scoping studies. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No further questions on this initiative or activity, sorry.
Thank you, Inuvik Boot Lake. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Well, now that I have the mic and I have nine minutes and 45 seconds no, no, Madam Chair, I'm going to pass, in all seriousness, on this page. And I'll raise it as needed. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So a quick opening comment, a little bit earlier the Minister mentioned that she doesn't necessarily believe the solution to reducing our diesel dependency is through bits and pieces. I think there's a larger argument to be had here over, you know, the effectiveness of the big mega projects versus the small projects, and it's not necessarily black or white certainly. But I think a lot of the work that, for example Arctic Energy Alliance is doing is, you know, bits and pieces, but it can be incredibly both cost effective and empowering to people and communities in terms of them being able to take back more control over their own energy supplies. And you know, even if it's one wood stove at a time, I think it does make a difference. And I would encourage the Minister to, you know, have further conversations with Arctic Energy Alliance and others about, really, the effectiveness of those programs that they're doing, even the bits and pieces ones.
But on that subject, so Arctic Energy Alliance is an arm's length organization. And, you know, we heard earlier from the Minister of ECE, when she was talking about the process with Aurora College, that, you know, that budget changes were done in consultation with the college, and certainly she was sort of asking them to propose something. Were these budget changes done in consultation with Arctic Energy Alliance? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there was discussion at an operational level with the chair of Arctic Energy Alliance. And, Madam Chair, I know this wasn't part of the question per se, but let me just walk back a little bit in saying that there's you know, we don't want to do things in bits and pieces. As a government, we want to be strategic, but being strategic does include things like even putting in the single EV charger that has to run on diesel for now, it still has a value. So I do see that. I don't want to I wouldn't want people to think that it's hopeless to go and replace their own wood stove, to have more, you know, energy efficient appliances and, in fact, find it very frustrating that the federal government wouldn't necessarily share that view. So I certainly don't want to leave with that notion. And Arctic Energy Alliance does do a lot of very good work. But, yes, there was an understanding that there was some surpluses, so there's areas of surplus, and that was really what was the primary focus of any reductions in this area. I do agree that that is an opportunity with the energy strategy coming out next year renewed to see both small scale, medium, and large scale what are we going to do in this space. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So one of the very popular programs that Arctic Energy Alliance was running or implementing was the community government retrofits program, which is was $190,000, and it's been proposed to be eliminated in this budget. Now, the Minister earlier mentioned that there is some federal funding that she believes will replace this program or the need for this program. Just to clarify, are we talking about a federal funding program that would be available to all communities across Canada, that any community in the NWT would have to compete with all other communities for, or is this a funding pot that's specifically for NWT communities that would be carried out through the GNWT or through Arctic Energy Alliance? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I actually purposely didn't try to say the name of the program earlier because I think I'm going to mispronounce it. But let me try. Wahilatoos is the name of the federal initiative. So this has come out even while we're waiting to see if the low carbon economy leadership fund will get renewed or well, when it will get renewed. Still hopeful on that. But this is what we've been directed to in the interim. Because that actually was, again, a significant source of funding that was helping the Government of the Northwest Territories to support programs, including the community retrofits fund. But while that one hasn't come out yet, this other one has. And my understanding it's a federal program not mine, but my understanding is that it's something available to communities northern particularly northern and Indigenous communities and brings together a number of federal departments so that, you know, whether it's under an Indigenous the Indigenous departments, whether it's on community departments, rural, northern, that they've come together, put some funding together, and that that is where communities can go. I'll certainly can post it out myself on social media. But it is again, it's available if folks wanted to try Googling Wah ila toos. I'm sure I'm saying it not correctly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I am concerned you know, I don't know much about this new federal initiative, but it sounds like it's something that would be opened up to northern and Indigenous communities across the entire country and that there's no guarantee that any of our NWT communities would, you know, get funding approved or, you know, we're just another applicant. And one of the big advantages in the community government retrofits program that Arctic Energy Alliance was delivering is they were able to do some project management, project coordination, they were able to do energy audits for community governments, and it was helping community governments make upgrades to their buildings and facilities that could really save the money in the end and make them more energy efficient, which everyone wants, right; it's an extremely popular program. And so I'm concerned that by losing Arctic Energy Alliance as the hub of that and helping communities make these projects happen, it would, you know, just be one more thing that's lost in the shuffle in the hundreds and hundreds of federal programs and applications and things that are out there. I wonder if the Minister can comment on what if she sees an advantage in having a specific territorialrun program to provide these kind of community government retrofits over sort of more widespread federal initiative? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So Madam Chair, let me just say, first of all, that the loss of the low carbon economy energy fund was a significant amount of money. It was significantly more than just what is shown here. I'm inclined to put it at yes, so it's closer to $5 million in total that we're losing. And I say that in that when we have had a loss of funding in that magnitude and there's some a program dollar that can be accessed through the federal government, yes, I am going to point people to go to the pot that exists elsewhere rather than take from the pot that has now been reduced by $5 million. You know, it's valuable to have energy efficiency reductions. It's just at the same time, we are struggling to pay for all the things. So if the federal government has put something out while taking a big thing away, I am pointing people back to that program. Would certainly want to know if folks, communities, governments in the Northwest Territories are being denied, because there may be political levers that we can pull to help support them and be happy to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I do understand where the Minister's coming from. I would just also point out though that I mean, this project had a budget line of $190,000, which is not going to change the world, but it's also not going to break our budget if we stepped in to avoid that the feds are leaving, hopefully temporarily. I would also point out, you know, we're seeing an elimination of the rebate program for electric bicycles. And it's only $10,000. And you could say that okay, well, it wasn't creating a huge impact because it was only $10,000, but it's also a very small amount of money, and it's been extremely popular, at least in Yellowknife and in my riding, and this, I think, fills a niche where, you know, we have a relatively small municipality where you don't necessarily need to drive everywhere but if you're pulling loads of things or you're pulling your kid around, it's really hard on a conventional bicycle, but the ebike sort of fills that gap where for much of the year people actually can manage to get around this, you know, manageablysized town without having to get in their car, and, you know, it makes life manageable and honestly more increases quality of life. And it does make a difference in reducing emissions, especially when transportation is one of our biggest sources of emissions. So I'm going to leave it at that but, you know, it was a small amount of money in the first place, and I think it does have value. Thank you.
Thank you, Members. Thank you, Yellowknife North. If we have no further questions, we'll turn to page 271.
Infrastructure, energy and strategic initiatives, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $9,158,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to programs and services beginning on page 276 with information on page 279. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page 277.
Infrastructure, programs and services, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $14,575,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Moving on to regional operations beginning on page 280, with information items on page 282. Are there any questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So under the highway operations budget, we've got $108 million for this coming fiscal year. Is any of that budget offset by federal funding? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
I don't believe so, Madam Chair. Let's go with no.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And so I believe that we get a significant amount of money from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, the ICIP program. Is that all capital funding, or does any of that funding, which I believe is about $55.4 million, does that go into operations and maintenance of infrastructure?
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
We're on our own in the operations and maintenance, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister of Finance Infrastructure, sorry. Member for Yellowknife North. Apologize for that, sorry.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That was just the clarification I needed. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Any further questions? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And just for funzies, I'm going to ask the Minister if she'll consider opening the DMV on Saturdays. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, I can certainly consider it, but it's probably not going to happen.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Got to keep things lively.
I also just note that we're up ever so slightly from the previous mains, so I was just hopeful that maybe that was a little bit of extra of, you know, human resource dollars paid for on Saturdays but if that's not the case, I'll be quiet. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Infrastructure.
