I move that $115,000 be deleted from the Interim Appropriation Detail book — that amount set out in Schedule 2, Capital Investment Expenditures, item No. 3, Public Works and Services, on page 6, for the project Final Records Processing and Storage Facility.
A motion is on the floor. To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called.
Committee motion carried.
Public Works and Services: $6,419,000.
I just note that we are spending $4 million to $5 million here — possibly more — on establishing and maintaining and replacing tank farms. This is a very costly procedure; the petroleum stored there is toxic and so on, so there are stringent regulations for how we store fuel. It’s a very costly process. I believe this is handled by the petroleum products division of Public Works. I think there’s a real opportunity here for savings if we can switch to non-toxic forms of fuel, which also have other benefits. I think in particular it’s been demonstrated in the North.
We heard discussion from the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs the other day that we can do things quite a bit differently in ways that save both on our capital costs and with environmental and socio-economic benefits, local economic benefits. So I’m wondering whether there has been serious consideration, rather than pouring all this money, tens of millions of dollars annually, into these assets to store possible fuel and so on, if in fact we’ve been looking at other ways of doing it — particularly, perhaps, changing the petroleum products division to the pellets products division, or something like that, and really getting at these savings that are waiting there for us. I recognize that we are taking advantage of those in a number of cases, but here’s another opportunity.
Mr. Chairman, we do realize, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, that further steps need to be taken in reducing the footprint we leave in this land that we live in, with the recognition that much of our communities need this because of supplies and a limited amount of time to get supplies into the communities. The majority is either home heating oil or vehicles that are running in the community that require this amount to be stored for meeting the year-round shipment.
As we move forward as a government to look at other initiatives — whether it’s heating our businesses or buildings or facilities — there will be opportunities for savings in the future. These are addressing either an upgrade that needs to be done to meet code requirements, or expansion of a facility because there’s not enough capacity in those facilities at this time to allow for enough supply to go through for a whole season.
Certainly I recognize the truth of what the Minister says. It does not address the opportunities we have, though. Of course, we need to be really progressive about this and stop this cycle somewhere. Obviously things are needed, but there are also huge opportunities to do things differently. Again, I say this as much for economic reasons, recognizing our financial situation as much or more than the environmental situation.
There’s an opportunity I see here for win-win. Again, I think, having looked at how quickly these things can be done, it can happen within the lifetime of this Assembly in spades. So I do recognize the truth of what the Premier said, but I want to stress that our opportunities are there. I wish I could be that relaxed about the time frame, but in fact it’s now recognized scientifically around the world that we are under the time gun here. The changes are happening at an unbelievable pace, and our costs are accruing at an unbelievable pace. So I’m looking for that same recognition from this government.
Mr. Chairman, as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we are seriously looking at how we do business as a government, if there are areas where we can effect a cost-saving by going to new technologies.
We also are looking at the fact that we may have to invest a little more up front to get a longer lifespan from some of the equipment and facilities that we operate. As well as doing as much as we can to mitigate the impact we have on the environment, there are a number of factors there that we’re working on. We have an energy committee through cabinet to begin looking at that and take the work that’s been done and continue to expand on it.
Health and Social Services, appropriation authority required: $27,562,000.
