Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under today’s fiscal and environmental challenges we need to be doing things in a more financially efficient and environmentally benign way. With the intake and delivery of water to residents of Dettah, there is a clear opportunity to reduce both financial and environmental costs.
Currently Dettah has to send a truck 16 kilometres two to three times per day to get water from the City of Yellowknife’s pumphouse at the Yellowknife River. They have to pay a full time driver and maintain and operate the truck on challenging road conditions. MACA is funding this at $170,000 annually, supplemented by the Housing Corporation’s indirect contribution of $160,000. Fuel consumed is about 9,000 litres, generating 20,000 kilograms of carbon emissions last year, which flies in the face of our recognition of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The City of Yellowknife is currently in the process of examining its own system with the option of eliminating this pumphouse and pulling water directly out of Yellowknife Bay. It will no longer make sense to keep the pumphouse just to supply water to Dettah. The energy costs for the pumphouse won’t make sense. The energy costs for the water tanker won’t make sense. If the city can pull water directly out of the bay, there’s no reason why Dettah can’t do the same.
Building a small pumphouse in Dettah would save the cost and time of trucking water all the way from the river and would radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It would ultimately provide a cost savings to the community and to those such as the GNWT that fund their current system.
Right now Dettah is paying $160,000 a year to the City of Yellowknife for water. Because they have to truck it from the river, they have to pay the full time employee. Although maintenance and fuel costs for the truck are around $30,000 a year, altogether, if Dettah pumped their own water directly from the bay, there is a potential savings of at least $200,000 a year and possibly much more. Even if a pumphouse were to cost $2 million, a very generous estimate, the financial payback would be less than ten years, and the reduction in environmental impacts would be significant.
With the city currently in the process of revamping its own system, now is the perfect time to look at a solution for Dettah as well. All that’s needed is the commitment and a wise investment from Municipal and Community Affairs to get this done. I have no doubt that our Minister will have that wisdom to move on this opportunity; nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, I will be asking the Minister questions on this. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
