Our capital city of Yellowknife has been named the most sustainable small city in Canada.
Applause.
I hope you will join me in congratulating our capital in feeling pride about its hard work toward achieving sustainability.
The Corporate Knights magazine of Toronto judged 18 small cities with populations under 250,000 on their efforts to have minimal environmental impact and to create a healthy population. Yellowknife came out tops. It was given recognition for the $300,000 that is budgeted to do a geothermal research study at the abandoned Con mine site to potentially access heat from underground. Yellowknife’s community garden co-operative — dedicated people who both grow their own food and contribute produce to those less fortunate — added to Yellowknife’s profile. The report further recognized that people are able to walk and ride bikes to work because of our extensive trails and short commuting distance.
I would like to congratulate the city councillors and mayor of Yellowknife for providing the leadership to strive for sustainability. They have committed $500,000 to a Community Energy Plan that sets steady targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and $175,000 to a Smart Growth Plan looking at long-term urban planning.
I know they are aware of the many ongoing issues that pose challenges and need attention. I’d like to briefly mention, on the Community Energy Plan, that the one large project, the pellet boiler going in — I believe it is for the swimming pool and the arena — they’re coming in within 1 per cent of achieving their target in greenhouse gas reductions with that one project. It must be a modest target, but they can build on that.
Mr. Speaker, social, environmental and economic sustainability is of vital importance to all life in the North. The best way to achieve it is to use our own local and regional resources to meet our basic needs. By enhancing literacy, mixing in traditional knowledge, tapping the innovation and industry of our people and using the materials at hand, we can produce much of our own energy, food and shelter in ways that build robust local economies, capture people’s imaginations and community spirit, and respect the environment.
Mr. Speaker, I hope all Members join me in acknowledging and supporting the efforts of all communities working towards sustainability. Once again, bravo, Yellowknife. Keep it up.
Applause.
