Over the last several weeks, as the mercury slid to minus 40 or more, our homes and businesses were gulping fuel to keep us warm and cozy, unfortunately to the detriment of our environment. The indications of climate change are all around us — we see them throughout the North — but there's hope. Alternative energy sources are available. We just have to accept and advance them.
The N.W.T. currently has such an opportunity. Last November the community of Tuktoyaktuk hosted the Remote Community Wind Energy Conference, and by all reports it was very successful and produced a number of excellent recommendations. It’s time to put those recommendations into action.
The G.N.W.T. Energy Plan and Greenhouse Gas Strategy documents tabled in the House in April of 2007 both state that the G.N.W.T. is committed to selecting a community for wind energy demonstration projects in 2008 and also having an operating wind turbine by 2009.
Tuk has essentially established itself as the best location for this project. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been working with the community on this idea for some time. Let’s declare Tuk the selected community and get on with it. If we're to have an operating wind turbine by next year, we must act now. Assuming that the project is successful, the right regulatory and policy framework to allow for production and selling of wind energy must also be put in place. That development, too, must be started now.
A demonstration project which shows positive results can lead to a number of other opportunities for the N.W.T.: federal support for cold-weather wind energy testing; a wind or an alternative energy training program offered through Aurora College, something that will benefit all three territories; an aboriginal-owned commercial alternative power producer; and the export of N.W.T. operations and maintenance expertise to service wind turbines at sites across the North.
This is a good-news story, Mr. Speaker. Economic development and saving the environment. It doesn’t get much better than that. I urge the government to remember this story as the budget is developed. At the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister of ENR.
