WHEREAS diversification of energy sources away from increasingly costly and unpredictably priced fossil fuels is essential to controlling our citizens’ costs of living and business costs, fostering strong local economies and protecting the environment;
AND WHEREAS ministerial mandates direct that a new NWT Energy Plan be developed with the objectives of stabilizing energy prices in communities and reducing the cost and impacts of energy use upon the environment, and direct Ministers to take action to promote community-based alternative energy systems;
AND WHEREAS electrical energy prices alone are already scheduled to increase by more than 25 percent over the next three years, with potentially greater increases when fossil fuel prices rise further;
AND WHEREAS the experience of renewable energy initiatives to replace the use of fossil fuels in the past four years has yielded a proven record of reducing costs, creating jobs, supporting local economies and developing a new northern economic sector, with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions;
AND WHEREAS the 16th Legislative Assembly established a fund of $60 million or $15 million per year to support the development and introduction of alternative forms of energy;
AND WHEREAS government funding for energy planning is being reduced from $6.5 million annually to $1.6 million for 2012-2013;
AND WHEREAS government funding for energy management is being reduced from $7.2 million annually to $3.5 million annually for 2012-2013;
AND WHEREAS government revenues have increased by 9.5 percent or approximately $132 million in this fiscal year;
AND WHEREAS demand from households, businesses and communities for alternative energy support programs is high, while programs are provided limited funds and are frequently oversubscribed;
AND WHEREAS this government’s plan to further subsidize the fossil fuel-dependent operations of the NWT Power Corporation, by spending a further $33.8 million in new taxpayer funds to reduce rate impacts upon consumers demonstrates the ability to make choices and find substantial new funds when needed;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that the Government of the Northwest Territories reinstate funding at least equivalent to the budgets devoted by the 16th Assembly for programming in support of renewable energy generation and more efficient use of energy;
AND FURTHER, that comprehensive planning and implementation of new hydro generation and grid connections be reinstated towards the achievement of both reduced and stabilized power costs, and expansion of hydro zones to communities currently relying on diesel generation of electricity;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the government provide a response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is time for this government to get serious about renewable energy and fully realize the potential to reduce our costs and support our people and businesses in a responsible way. This motion is about just that.
In the absence of real action, energy costs will go on soaring until we get down to it. We now have four years of experience with energy initiatives from the 16th Assembly. We have made many internal gains and learned many lessons about how to be more effective with energy expenditure. Now it is time to fund and apply this knowledge to the full benefit of our communities.
This experience, combined with a significant increase in our revenues of $132 million this year, indicates that conditions are ripe for action. What action? We are simply asking for implementation of proven technologies that exists in thousands of communities throughout Europe, the northern Scandinavian countries and elsewhere around the globe.
Currently, rather than addressing the situation, our government is letting the soaring costs of inaction accumulate in hidden ways in the form of ever-increasing energy subsidies and fuel costs. These costs are much greater than the 2 or 3 or 4 percent we would pay on a few million dollars borrowed to deliver new energy systems. Such costs include: more than doubling the $14 million per year we already subsidize electricity rates; greater than 50 percent rise in fuel costs since 2007, borne by our people, our government, our municipalities, our businesses, our environment; seniors fuel subsidies that don’t change in litres, only in cost; and so on.
Rather than wise investment towards reducing and stabilizing energy prices, we seem almost eerily content to allow these hidden costs to soar, costs that are robbing funds from the many important service delivery demands already existing and accumulating.
Our public wants and needs alternatives to fossil fuels in all our communities. Further, our people know that developing local and regional renewable energy sources will provide community jobs and local economic development, and will capture the multiplier benefits of dollars paid and spent locally instead of being sent south to businesses and jobs far away. They also know that other benefits will accrue, including environmental and social benefits to areas where our needs are so great.
If we were to commit a modest $5 million, only a fraction of what was decimated from this budget, that would be well under 1 percent of our debt limit that we fought so hard to have increased. I want to keep things in perspective here when we talk about those sort of numbers.
The budget has removed millions of dollars from the energy budgets – proposes to – in both environment and natural resources, and in industry and tourism investment, right when needs are the greatest. Choices are being made. This decision is unacceptable and we want a renewed commitment of dollars dedicated to providing stable and reduced energy prices in the NWT. We want to support and appreciate our indigenous and long-term residents, we want people living here to stay here, and we want to attract the kind of people who value sustainable living and a government that addresses this issue and the cost of living generally. Let’s get an appropriate level of energy dollars back in the books and directed towards effective delivery on community energy initiatives.
I look forward to the comments and perspectives of all my colleagues, and I will be, obviously, supporting this motion, and I would appreciate consideration. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off, I will not be supporting this particular motion. I want to be clear, because I do support environmental initiatives and energy saving projects, but the difference is I actually support the ones that make sense, and certainly I’m not sure that this motion does do that.
I’ve supported, in the past, things like green bags, light bulbs, CFL adjustments, wood pellet stoves and boilers, promoting them. Even myself, I’m a proud owner of a wood pellet boiler. The thing is, I encourage people to use the opportunities and the tools that avail themselves to them to take on more energy efficient opportunities. I try to be a living example of that particular case.
From a pragmatic approach, I often try to remind people, though, it’s about making sense. We can chase every dream like the rainbow, but the fact is, some are just so unaffordable that we’re doing these things but they just don’t make sense.
I recognize the work that Mr. Bromley is trying to do here by saying, well, we need to spend more money on environmental initiatives, but the fact is, a lot of them just don’t seem to pay out. As I said earlier, I encourage everybody at every opportunity to make environmentally responsible choices to their lifestyle, and I let not an occasion go by without trying to encourage people to live better and smarter and do the right thing that not only is just for them but is for the environment as well.
Part of the issue that I’m raising here today from my perspective is the fact that these initiatives, by and large, need to have some type of payback on investment. Now, I understand the large moral conviction many people have, and sometimes that’s why we make these types of commitments. My wife and I bought a hybrid, not believing that it would financially pay itself out on the bottomline, but we felt it was important it was built on the moral commitment of the type of life and lessons we’re trying to teach not only ourselves, but teach our children. Sometimes, I have to tell you, our kids come home and teach us lessons about doing things better.
I feel that some of these actions that are environmentally focused, the responsibility also has to be the fact that we have to make sure that they’re useful and they actually do pay something back. Can the GNWT afford to spend more money on these energy projects without guarantee of any type of return on our investment? Often we hear the Finance Minister talk about how tight our finances are and how we just heard the status quo budget. I mean, status quo usually means no imagination but my fear is if they had gone with too many environmental projects that weren’t designed to pay back, I mean, who knows what that would cost us and what benefit over the long run.
In my view, we need to start setting achievable goals and meaningful dialogue on this particular case so we can help set targets when we decide that we’re going to make environmental initiatives and they’re actually going to be useful and pay back. We need to make investments that actually, like I said, have a return on investment.
Previous funding, in my view, certainly was not invested money wisely spent. I think a lot of the projects, although meaning well, didn’t actually show much in return. Sixty million dollars went out to about 20 projects and, certainly, they include some interesting goals, but we certainly spent some money on hydro facilities in Lutselk'e, Whati, Deline, Tulita, Taltson expansion, transmission lines, wind energy, solar power subsidies, and certainly a number of policy reviews. As many Members will remember, we also spent a fair bit of money on smaller projects such as solar power for swimming pools, wood pellet boilers in public buildings and the increased presence of the Arctic Energy Alliance in our communities. For $15 million allocated each year in the 16th Assembly, the question of general consumer – and I should say the taxpayer – is always asking, so what was delivered and did we achieve any actual savings on these particular things other than spending $60 million, in total that is.
So as many people know, the NWT Power Corp had to shut down some of their initiatives because they just proved unpractical and certainly not affordable. So would this just be another fund built with great ideals, focus on moralities of how we wish we could do things but they have no payback? When things are tight and we hear about how much more the Power Corporation is going to keep raising our power bills and costing us money, I mean, we have to rethink how we do business.
Yes, we need to spend money on new technologies and at times you’ll even hear me be a supporter of some that are new initiatives, but during these times of restraint, we have to actually worry about what actually works and actually makes money. If we’re just throwing money out the window, we should just be writing cheques to our citizens rather than just spending money on useless projects that don’t actually have a return.
Yes, there are projects that actually make a good return and I’ve seen certain cases where pellet boilers in schools and even at the Legislative Assembly here had a refocus on how we use energy, but this is few and far between. Sixty million dollars didn’t pay for three pellet boilers; it paid for a lot of projects that didn’t work.
So that’s the type of dynamic I’m talking about. We have projects that we know can work and bring a return on the bottom line, and we have a lot of projects we hope will do something that have no effect other than costing us money.
I’ll return to some of the examples here. The Lutselk’e mini hydro turned out to have such mega costs, and even the Taltson expansion originally intended to send power to diamond mines was shelved. Even the price tag on Bluefish is somewhere around $37 million, although we continue to pour money into policy reviews, with very little return. The question is: How much more money?
I recognize Mr. Bromley’s point about continuing to spend money on power subsidies and that does become a burden on the system by and large and that’s not right, but we should be really asking ourselves what makes money in the sense of a return, because it’s important to use our money wisely. Yet again, what little money we seem to have. I mean, whenever you hear an initial project asked by anybody on the Member’s side, there’s never any money, but boy he’s got $60 million that he got covered up really fast by the last Cabinet and although it may not technically be in the Minister’s riding, it sure looked like it from our point of view.
So in spite of all these green initiatives and intentions, Norman Wells, as we know, and even Inuvik have lost their natural gas sources and the GNWT is now totally unprepared on how to implement a viable energy program to supplement the diesel.
I’ve been using many occasions to remind different folks that maybe the GNWT needs to do a full accounting on what the Inuvik gas problem will cost us. Maybe we should become an investor in the spur line just outside of Inuvik, and maybe we could own a new gas utility and be an investor rather than switching our assets over to diesel. There could be an opportunity that actually brings us money.
The argument for $60 million more investment, like many people ask, what will it do for the cost of living of the average person; a person who sits at the table, looks across and sees their kids and asks themselves how are they going to pay the power bill this month or how are they going to pay the heating bill? I have yet to see that really change anywhere.
The only people that are feeding, and I should stress feeding well, are the contractors who are getting the contracts to these particular projects and policy, because they’re eating well at $60 million.
So power rates, as I said earlier, will continue to rise and it’s going to be in the high twenties over the next three years when we add it all up together. I mean, what dynamic have we really changed? Some of our disincentive to some of these great ideas from working is the reality that our population is small and our communities are spread out. That becomes a challenge. If we want to make good commitments on good moral values, then that’s really what we should be saying, is we’re doing this, it doesn’t matter what it costs, but it seems like the right thing to do and that’s why we’re doing it. I mean, let’s say that. But to fool the average person by saying don’t worry, all these things have a return on the bottom line, I think we’re misleading the constituents out there because, really, a lot of them just don’t seem to have that type of return.
Another $60 million, in my view, unprepared; it’s just a blank cheque. I’m all for doing something right, but again the payback on any of these projects is skeptical on the best day, and I’m really concerned about that. Again, I’m about spreading the money around when it makes sense, and by all means we have to make sure that we get projects out there into our communities and to our regions that help people lower their costs.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t have to lecture you on how expensive power bills are in your communities, and I have to wonder to myself, the only time we ever lower the power costs in those northern communities was by reaching in the power rates. It was a policy shift. You know, that was a piece of paper. How much money did that cost in comparison to spending $60 million on a new process?
We have experienced many successes, and those small-scale successes such as the wood pellet boilers as I had pointed out do make sense. Maybe we should be focusing in on what we do well, and let’s continue doing what we do well until we actually can figure out how we can do something else well.
I know this summer they launched a solar panel in Fort Simpson, and I applaud the thinking of this style of initiatives but, again, back to how much do these things cost and is there a real payback,
There is wide public support for alternative energies and I welcome that support on any type of project, but people always ask themselves is there a return on their particular tax dollar and that tends to be the issue. Investing more money in this particular case may be wrongly put. I mean, my colleague just keeps calling it a modest $5 million. It’s almost like it’s falling out of his pocket. He’s got so much money he can call it modest. From my point of view, $5 million is a lot of money.
If we want to invest money wisely, I’d say let’s put it into early childhood education. That’s where we’ll have a real impact on our future and on the environment, by being able to fully fund schools properly. Early childhood education, to me that is the energy of the future. That is the resource we should be stoking continually.
Local measures such as community gardens, I welcome and I certainly support those types of investments. I welcome further investment in recycling programs, and I’ve brought up even things like tire shredding and e-waste returns, different energy type of initiatives and sometimes recycling initiatives that we can get some payback from. But we cannot afford to risk $60 million of the taxpayers’ money without some type of measured result. People fear about what’s happening for the future as far as power rates. It shows how irresponsible can we be with this money.
So, in closing, I want to say I can’t support the reinstatement of this fund without some clear strategies as to how we can actually make real change that affects the bottom line. I’m not against energy initiatives, and that shouldn’t be mixed here and misunderstood. It’s about energy initiatives that don’t have a return on investment that affect the bottom line of the everyday taxpayer.
We often hear about how we try to do things for the cost of living and yet again the results bucket seems to be empty. I look, it’s hollow. There are no results there. Again, as I said earlier of course, is the fact that the only real change we’ve had on bottom line cost of living is the rejigging of power rates. It’s just shifted the burden around on people as opposed to really solving the bigger problems.
So if we have initiatives that make sense, I’ll be there and I’ll be there in spades tramping their value. But until then, I don’t want a blank strategy, a blank cheque going out with no idea. Like I said earlier, the only people winning and feeding well are the contractors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s hard to know where to start after my colleague’s comments, but I am totally in support of this motion.
I fail to understand how voting against money to look at different energy sources is not going to impact my bottom line and my power rates, and everybody else’s bottom line in their power rates.
I have to say I was quite dismayed when I looked at this year’s budget and realized that we were going to be reducing our input into research on energy and energy projects, that we have pretty much slashed it almost to the bone. I felt that in the last Assembly our initiative to put $60 million over four years into energy projects and research and developing new projects, we were just starting to get somewhere, and I thought that we were making progress and we were finding alternate energy sources.
The Minister of Finance has a number of times stated in the budget that choices are being made. The government is making choices, we are making choices, he says, and absolutely we are making choices. One of the choices that this government has made is to subsidize our power rates to the tune of some $34 million. I fail to understand how that can be construed as a positive step forward. All we’re doing is taking money and putting it onto something which is going to carry on ad infinitum and forever. Our power rates absolutely are going to increase if we keep doing the same thing over and over and over and we don’t look to find a different way of producing our power. We are going to end up spending more and more money. It’s like banging our head against the wall and I really don’t want to do that. My father used to say quit banging your head against the wall, and he would say it feels really good when you stop. So I think probably we should stop banging our head against the wall and we should look to try and find different ways of producing our energy.
I think that this motion, albeit doesn’t have specifics in it and I wouldn’t want it to have specifics because I think there needs to be an opportunity for the government to identify how the money is going to be used on which projects and there’s a number of projects from the previous Assembly that were not finished, that were started and could be carried on with. There’s a number of other projects which are certainly waiting to be done. Fifteen million dollars in any one year needs to be put into the budget so the government can look at it and say this is where we need to go.
We have to start fixing the problem at the bottom. We have to start looking at how we produce our energy, how we heat our homes, what kind of power we have, and where it’s sourced, and we have to fix it at that level. That, in the long run, is the only way that we’re going to bring our costs down.
The cost of living has been referenced a number of times. It’s going to be referenced a lot. Power is a huge part of our cost of living and it’s one that, you know, constantly goes up. We’re looking at a 25 percent increase or something in our cost of power over the next three years. I’m not looking forward to that, but if we don’t try to solve the problem at its source, it’s going to be another 25 percent in another 10 years or so.
So I really feel that this is a forward thinking motion. I think the couple of things in the whereases, government revenues have increased in this budget year. We are looking at a budget increase of 9.5 percent in revenues. So the government is choosing to use that increase in revenues in different ways. I feel that this is one way that we should be using it as opposed to be putting it into the subsidy.
So I am in support of the motion, Mr. Speaker, and I would encourage my colleagues to vote in support of this motion as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I got up early this morning, picked up my pen and paper and had my good cup of coffee and I started writing down my notes on what I wanted to say about this motion. The first thing I did was get a list of the energy priorities investment for 2010. The last government committed $60 million to the projects. Mr. Hawkins has made several references to this priority list.
I looked at it and I put it on the floor, and said this is where the regions are getting the projects. This is where we committed $60 million, and that money just came out of the air. This is where we’re going to put the projects.
Mr. Speaker, the high cost of living is in the northern part of the Northwest Territories, up in Ulukhaktok, Sachs, Paulatuk, Tuk, Tsiigehtchic, Aklavik, McPherson in the Sahtu. It becomes a little bit cheaper as you go down south. I looked at this and said, okay, where did the government spend the $60 million. The majority of the funding was spent just south, Wrigley and south. We had a few projects up in Tuk for wind power. We had Norman Wells, and looking at the natural gas conversion, if there ever is going to be a pipeline going to be built, that’s what they will be looking at. We have solar panel heating in our swimming pools in Tulita and Norman Wells. Deline has looked at the Bear River hydro for the last 16 years. Even in their plan on energy with the government, it talks about energy for the future. It talks about Deline looking at being in the construction mode. Hopefully in 2014 could see the first hydro power from the development on the Bear River being utilized for the Mackenzie Gas Pipeline for compressor stations or other future industrial developments. In 2020-25, building the corridor established by the Bear River developing power from the Mackenzie River could be explored for southern markets.
So we did talk about this. It is in the plan. There is a plan, but we have to update it, of course. I don’t know where the Mackenzie Gas Project is now today. So we need to update it. There is a transmission gridline going up the Mackenzie Valley beyond Fort Simpson, past Wrigley, Tulita to Norman Wells and they’ve got some other projects going up further there.
I see this as an opportunity if we ever, ever have a chance to get another gift like the $60 million, I certainly hope that the projects go beyond Fort Simpson. We certainly need the money in the Bear River. They’ve been waiting for almost 17 years to get a hydro project going there.
I encourage people, the Northwest Territories, to look at this and see for yourself and come to your own conclusions as to where the projects and the money went. It had its reasons. I say this motion here, if we ever have an option again, look at the projects and see where they can be invested to help our people. Look at Norman Wells. It’s a crying shame that this government here cannot say to Norman Wells we will help you. They desperately need our help. It’s going to cost residents in my riding and Norman Wells to covert, because Imperial decides they are going to shut their power, natural gas, off. These are real people, Mr. Speaker. Real people from the Sahtu.
Inuvik also has the same situation. This government should have had a few bucks in its back pocket to say we’re going to help you. You know? They’ve got projects going other places that we could have used. The Bear River hydro transmission line could have been built, could have gone up to Norman Wells and they could have had power cheap. They would have had energy in Tulita and Norman Wells. It’s about a $10 million hydro initiative. We could have put the power line in. We spent $13 million where? On Taltson? For what? We don’t even have a power purchase from the mining companies.
So we need to look at those things that make sense to our people. We need to think of some of the realities here. I think that if we ever get the chance… There’s a saying, if we ever get to do it again, what would I do. I’m hoping that... We’ll, I’m hoping I’m in Cabinet so I can make some decisions.
---Laughter
Real decisions to see where these types of energy initiatives can go. I know, Mr. Speaker, my friends across will have a lot of fun with that.
I want to say, in reality these types of projects that Mr. Bromley has put through this motion make sense. We need to serve our people. We have also done a lot of good things in the communities. I’m glad that we subsidized the power rates in our communities. That’s what we need to do. Sometimes we need to bite the bullet and say this is what we’re going to do. I’m sure glad that people recognize that it’s helping our people with the cost of living. It’s ridiculous to pay $2.46 a kilowatt in Colville Lake and they’re sitting on a natural gas field. They could do a lot if we had the energy and the money to produce that natural gas field for power in Norman Wells or their own community.
The energy initiative that has gone out to the different communities like Liard, geothermal, Yellowknife geothermal, the hydro at Bluefish, the wood pellets, Fort Simpson with the district heating, Fort McPherson district heating, all of these are good projects, but it’s a real crying shame that there’s not too much happening in the Sahtu except studies and studies and studies. Oh yeah, we have two solar panels for our swimming pool. Swimming pools are what? June, July, August and then that’s it. We need to put some real money into some of these community projects. The Bear River needs to go. We have to have the Bear going here. It will help us a lot. Just like we have Lutselk’e and Whati. We need that also.
I want to say that I thank Mr. Bromley for bringing this motion up to give us some discussion, some air time, and let the people know what we think about the energies in the Northwest Territories, where the priorities are, and what some of our passion is for our community to bring the cost of living down and to know this territory can do a lot of good. It could bring the power down. We could bring the rates down. Gear that money right towards where it is.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I speak in favour of the motion. Why? I think this motion is visionary and provides leadership. At the same time I think it creates options for what the public expects at this time. At this time in the North we’ve seen very dramatic rises in the cost of living, of course. As the economy improves, so does the cost of goods. Particularly energy costs. I think the public would expect this government would try to create some options and alternatives to the mainstream energy sources that we have at this point. In speaking to this motion I believe it’s visionary and provides leadership and that’s what this government is all about.
I have a vision at some point in the future that I’ll drive into my home community and I’ll see log homes that are built locally. At the same time they’ll have alternative energy sources such as wood pellets to heat the house. They have solar energy to provide lights for the house. We’d be looking at some biodegradable initiatives to ensure that we’re not leaving large imprints on the environment. I think this motion speaks to that. I speak strongly in favour of this.
Currently in our communities we have very nice, scenic communities along the bank. We have very nice scenery in the mountains. What contrasts with that is while we enjoy the aesthetics of nature and ensuring that our community complements nature, we have these loud, droning, diesel generators in our communities. That’s a really stark contrast. When I speak to kids about the environment, sometimes it doesn’t make sense for us to enjoy the beauty of the North in our small communities and be very environmentally in tune with nature, but then what contrasts is that we have these fossil fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Of course they contribute to global warming. In that sense I speak in favour of this motion and will be voting for this motion.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleagues have made a good point on both sides of this argument. My thoughts are similar to theirs. The high energy costs in the Northwest Territories are going up. Some of the projects that have been invested in have not worked. We have wasted some dollars on some of these projects. My other concern is that I’m not really willing to give up either.
Right now there must be some potentials out there. I know from discussions with some of my colleagues, that biomass is one of the highest returns dollar for dollar. Your return on your cost of living would go down quite a bit. I’m going to support this. I’d like to see that’s one area that we invest our money into.
The other thing, talking about rate of return on our investments, we can’t put in the numbers of the carbon footprint that we’re trying to reduce, the future generations of the North. I think we need to invest some dollars into this energy, the green energy. They may not all be successful but we need to find some things that do work for us, help the residents currently, help the residents of the future, and help the future generations.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. While I can admit there is a real need for increase in support for renewable energy in our great, vast Northwest Territories, just the way the motion is written there I cannot be in support of full reinstatement of $15 million annually, given we’re deliberating the budget and we know the reality of this coming fiscal year and the future. Especially when I have real capital needs for my people in my small and remote communities.
I spoke often right from the get-go of my two favourite words: Highway No. 7 – zero capital dollars there; I need schools in Trout Lake and Nahanni Butte; housing initiatives have to be addressed. I do know that every time we put an initiative like this and ask for $15 million annually, it takes away from the consideration of capital needs in my small and remote communities because we have to compete for those same dollars.
In that sense I cannot support this motion. I do know that we did spend $60 million and I do acknowledge that my riding and communities did benefit from the initiatives in exploring solar in-stream electricity, geothermal exploration and, indeed, biomass initiatives. I still think that with the $5 million we have available we can achieve this within our budget. I try not to build up our Cabinet too much, but there is a willingness, I believe, that they can work with our committee to discuss the needs identified in Mr. Bromley’s motion. I think there is a willingness and I look forward to deliberating with Cabinet as we work towards solutions of indeed increasing support for our renewable energy resources.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a couple situations here in the Northwest Territories. We have the Inuvik situation and we have the Norman Wells situation coming up. The general rate applications, we’re just increasing the cost of living for our residents. As stated, the more northern you get and the more isolated in the communities you get, the higher the cost is going to be. The government continues to subsidize the communities and some of the rates that they have to pay when we can actually be investing in some cost savings. I’m in support of this motion and as we move forward we have to look at how we have to help the people of the Northwest Territories and the businesses. Sometimes when you look at our small communities, the small businesses that have to pay these power costs, we have to find ways where we can continue for our small businesses to succeed and continue to contribute to our economies.
There were comments here and anytime that I hear Members talking about not supporting this issue and putting capital over livelihood – there was a comment there where we put capital over people’s livelihood – that’s not what we should be doing.
I thank Mr. Bromley and Mr. Blake for bringing this motion to the House and it’s one way that we start investing with this government with the funding to go into these cost savings for our people. It’s all about the people of the Northwest Territories.
I would invite Yellowknife Members to go into the communities to see. When I made a Member’s statement the other day, I said it has to be the communities that are the backbone of this government and not just the capital. One of my colleagues made reference to the high cost of living in Tuktoyaktuk. Go to Ulukhaktok and Paulatuk and see how those people can make it paycheque to paycheque. It’s true.
I was disappointed in hearing some of our Members not supporting such an initiative that should be common sense. I’m in support of this motion.
Another thing I was a little disappointed with was that the money was taken out of the budgets for energy programs when we’re looking through the business plans. I was also a little disappointed to see that this government allocated $100,000 to Inuvik residents with the situation that they’re in when it’s a bigger issue than just money put in there. Hopefully we can find solutions to that.
I would rather this government continue to pay all this money into this and find ways we can save costs and protect our people of the Northwest Territories, especially the people in the small communities. Like I said, I’m in support of this motion.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, am in support of this motion. I believe that this is a long-term investment for the Northwest Territories. It seems we have become dependent on non-renewable resources. It’s quite clear. We need to begin our research into renewable resources and whether it’s producing our own wood pellets here in the Northwest Territories. We also need to fully support those communities that are stepping forward to champion these projects. For example, as Mr. Yakeleya stated, we have turbine energy in the Bear River. We also have the community of Tuktoyaktuk that is looking into wind energy. We also have solar energy in, I believe, Fort Simpson and Whati. These are first steps and we have to think long term. We cannot become dependent on non-renewable resources because they won’t last forever. We need to take advantage of the resources that we have here in the Northwest Territories that are rich. For example, I think we’re the only ones, next to Nunavut, who have 24-hour daylight. We need to take full advantage of these resources.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would first like to thank Mr. Bromley for bringing it forward. There’s no doubt his passion to energy and renewable resources is very evident in the House. We’ve heard him speak many times. And to the seconder of the motion Mr. Blake.
When one looks at this motion, one sees a very broad-brush approach to energy initiatives and looking at solutions thereof. It’s very difficult sometimes to provide something for everyone when you look at a motion of that magnitude, so I would like to break that motion up into some components before I make my decision here known.
Really, at the end of the day, no one wants to take away from the alternative energy sources that we have out in the North. A lot of them have done very well in small communities, and small circumstances, and created employment, and has had some significance in lowering some of the energy costs. As I mentioned in the House not that many days ago, I mentioned that some of these initiatives are sometimes nothing more than throwing rice at a freight train, especially when we’re talking about the urban problems in the Northwest Territories. Again there were comments that came back from the other side of the House, but really in the essence that was very true. The urban centres cannot afford to go into large-scale alternative energies because the economies of scale do not make sense. We need to look at something bigger. We need something of a higher dividend. That is where this motion does pay tribute to that with respect to transmission lines. I still stand firm on that. That is truly the panacea of our energy problems for the future and our dependency on fossil fuels.
With that in mind, I will be voting in favour of the motion under the pretense that with that the Taltson expansion transmission lines be the forefront and the hydro initiative become very, very important to this government. I will be voting in favour of this motion with a DOT road sign that says “Proceed with Extreme Caution.”
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Members, as well, for their input into this motion. In this House as legislators we have a number of tasks before us. We make laws and set up programs and policies, and we administer budgets for the good of all the people. We have to take not only the short view of what’s happening around us but we have to plan, as the Member for Mackenzie Delta said, for the future.
When we started this Assembly we had a plan. We were elected into a reality, a reality where we were coming out of a very significant recession where we spent $1.1 billion in capital for over three years. At the same time, part of that was $60 million over four years, knowing as we did this that we were engaged in a process that was not sustainable in the long term, that we would deplete our cash reserves because we needed to step into the breach as the private sector struggled through the downturn.
When we came into the 17th Assembly, we started a plan that would see us in year one and two maintaining fiscal discipline so that in year three and four we would be able to add more money into infrastructure. We came into this Assembly with our capital budget for government diminished to $75 million. Last year Transportation’s budget during the $1.1 billion time was over $150 million itself.
In order to get to enhance the $75 million, we agreed that we would do a number of things: that we would put $1.4 billion to programs and services; that we would protect the programs and services to the people; that we would negotiate good collective agreements that would give us labour peace; and that we would look for efficiencies to add and replenish our cash reserves, because we are obligated under policy that we have – fiscal responsibility policy – to fund half of our capital by savings generated from operations. We’ve started that program and that process. We are currently $656 million in debt. Our borrowing limit is $800 million. We can easily eat up that $144 million on very many good projects, processes, programs and investments.
If we do and we do it right now and we do not manage our way through this and stick to a long-term plan, we are going to have very little flexibility to do anything going forward that would allow us to begin to address some of the other broad issues we have.
The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake commented about we have to focus on programs. We do, and we’re putting $1.4 billion in there. We know we have a health centre and a long-term care facility that’s supposed to go into Norman Wells. We know Stanton is supposed to be fixed, $200 million-plus. We have $144 million borrowing room between now and the $800 million.
We all agree that we have to make this shift, that we are in transition on the type of energy we use, minimizing our reliance on fossil fuels, and we invested $60 million, but we also have to manage within the times that we are in, the fiscal times that we are in.
Yes, I would love to be able to stand up and put more money into a number of things, into all sorts of energy projects, but we do not have the fiscal flexibility. I would love to be able to tell the Minister of Health that yes, there is money for midwifery, that we can build more treatment centres, that we can do all this and still address our projected $3 billion capital infrastructure deficit, the passionate Member for Nahendeh with Highway No. 7.
We are in the business of making choices and we are continuing a lot of the work that we started. Not to the level that we would like, but we are continuing. Public Works and Services and the territorial government are going to do all their retrofits. They’re moving on that. It’s generating savings. They’ve set up a type of revolving fund to help pay for that. We’re continuing to invest in solar. We’re continuing to invest in biomass. We’re working with a private individual that wants to set up a pellet plant in the Northwest Territories, which is the second step of our plan with biomass – build the market, build the industry. We’re on that track. We want to invest in wind. We want to continue to invest in geothermal, and we’re doing it to the level that we are able.
We will come back with an energy plan. We’ll come back with an energy plan that will tell you that yes, if we are serious about our Economic Development Strategy and our Mineral Strategy in the North and South Slave. For us to do that project, expand the Taltson by 50-some megawatts and run a transmission line to hook the North and South Slave together, the Taltson and Snare grid, three-quarters of a billion dollars. We know that, because that was the approximate cost of the project to take the transmission line all the way to the mines. But it’s a critical piece that needs to get done, so we have to figure out how we’re going to do that.
We’re going to come forward with the Solar Strategy that’s going to say we would like to make a 10 percent penetration into every thermal community to cut their costs on diesel. We’ve done it in Simpson. We know it works. The technology is there. We’re not breaking trail. There’s going to be a payback there. We’re going to diminish our demand on diesel by 10 percent. We have to make that case.
We know we have to sort out Inuvik. Inuvik, if we just go straight gas right now, then we’d be writing a cheque for $50 million to $80 million. Where in all these main estimates in this document are we going to find that kind of money?
Our decision here is to make a number of choices. In this case, in energy, we’re making investments. We’re going to continue to make investments. We’re going to come back with the plan that will allow us, if we maintain fiscal discipline and if we agree we need partners on the big projects, to go forward in year three and four. If we rush to spend our way through the borrowing limit that we do have, I am telling you right now that we will have no flexibility left for the last couple years of this government. We have to make choices and we have to stay on target. We can do this, but we can’t do it all in the first budget. I’m asking here for people to consider that and remember that.
We started this process on that understanding, and we are fully and deeply committed to trying to save the money we need to put a few dollars extra into infrastructure. When you balance programs and services, money versus capital, there’s a huge difference: $1.4 billion on programs and services. We’re having a $75 million capital budget for 42,000 people to try to erode and eat away at a projected $3 billion deficit. We have to be able to say collectively there are many things we want to do. We are going to do just about all of them, but how fast can we do them?
I’m asking today, in the enthusiasm of the moment of everybody standing up to say let’s spend that money, let’s take it away from the $144 million. Let’s knock that $144 million down for this motion, and are there others coming? I have no idea. Let’s knock that $144 million down to $130 million, $120 million, $100 million, and in year one, by the end of two weeks, where will we be? We will be hamstrung. Then the choice left to us for any flexibility is going to be what we’re working so hard to avoid, which is program cuts and layoffs.
As we look across the land, let’s pick a country. Let’s pick Spain today, teetering on the brink of insolvency. Look at the provinces around us. We’ve managed our way through this to avoid those types of circumstances by being careful, by collectively managing our way through difficult circumstances and recognizing that we have to make choices.
Today this motion is well intentioned and it speaks to what we all want to do. We just have to pace it properly, sequence it properly, lay it out properly so we can deal with this issue. At the same time, the myriad of other issues that are going to come before us in a way that is going to allow us as the 17th Assembly to put our fiscal house in order, address a lot of issues, so that when we hand off the torch to the 18th Assembly, we’re going to hand off the government in better shape, hopefully, than when we found it.
This is a recommendation to Cabinet, so we will be abstaining, but rest assured, we’re listening carefully. We will come back in about five months with a broader plan on energy, but today I just ask everybody to just keep the context of what got us here, how we started our journey and the decisions that we have to make along the way so that we don’t get caught up in the excitement of the moment and forget those broad pieces, because they are critical. We share the same goals; we just have to figure out collectively how we get there in a sustainable way. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. To the motion. Final comments, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to all who offered their comments and perspectives here.
Mr. Speaker, this Assembly did come out with some understanding and Cabinet developed a direction on that basis. Personally, I know many of my colleagues think that Cabinet has done a very good job in bringing many aspects of this budget forward, but they are not infallible and Members on this side of the House are moved to influence about half a percent of the budget. If some of this is an increase, so be it, but I assure the Minister and all that we’re not proposing this lightly and we do regard this as a perspective that will give us returns and that we cannot afford to not do.
We hear about how the bridge will be paying down its debt this fall and so we can be writing things off the books there. We’ve negotiated a higher debt limit. Obviously, these things will all help and provide some opportunity. Basically we are convinced that our recommendations are fiscally responsible and, indeed, more so than burying our heads in the sand on this issue and opportunity this fiscal year.
We want a renewed plan. Yes, we’re looking forward to that and we’re looking forward to working with the Minister in developing that, but we also have plans in place that need dollars now. We have many plans, a Biomass Plan and so on. The Minister mentioned several of them and we cannot abandon these.
This is not a surprise. We have said this consistently and recently to the Minister, and the Minister was open to responding if we were to come forward with one voice, and we’re doing that.
I want to just address some of the comments I’ve heard as well, comments like this is an environmental initiative that doesn’t make sense and so on, there’s no return on an investment. Earlier we have discussed the revolving fund, the Capital Asset and Revolving Fund, which is a government fund established to collect and reinvest savings from renewable energy initiatives, energy efficiency initiatives that this government has done. A tip of the hat to the government for that. Just about, as I said, essentially every project we’ve undertaken has indeed saved us money as well as provided many other benefits. So the sorts of comments that came out, that there are no benefits here are completely off base, and I think the evidence is clear that these are beneficial projects. Again, it’s unaffordable not to address these issues.
On the point that a couple of people have made that we have made mistakes, I think there’s no question about that. That’s part of doing business and it’s our job to bring those to the forefront and I think we’ve done a good job of that, but we also want to learn from our mistakes and move forward based on that new knowledge.
The Taltson project itself, I agree, we were off base on the general direction we were taking, but we really did do a lot of productive work and we need to make use of that work and put that into operation, and that’s exactly what this motion is meant to do, is provide the resources for that.
This motion is indeed about the cost of living. It can be portrayed as an environmental initiative and so on and there are certain environmental benefits that accrue from that, but there are many others: the cost of living, economic stimulation and so on. I believe the public, as some people have mentioned, some of my colleagues have mentioned, there’s a public expectation of leadership here and this motion is meant to respond to that expectation.
What some of my colleagues see as challenges, many of us see as opportunities and we want to move on those opportunities. The strategies for projects developed have been laid out, the Biomass Strategy, the Hydro Strategy, the Energy Plan, which is being renewed this year, Energy for the Future and so on. There are a lot of documents in place to allow this to go forward.
Power rates, as has been mentioned, will continue to soar if we maintain our current course. The projects to be completed are producing increasing dilemmas, and examples here in communities are certainly the Norman Wells and the Inuvik situation. We want to start addressing those in really sustainable ways on a bottom line basis.
A couple of my colleagues, at least, have mentioned in the North expenses are much higher. Let’s focus our initial efforts on where those costs are highest. Let’s put the focus on those communities. We do have a big income disparity, a big disparity in economic development in our communities. Let’s focus first on those communities that are at the low end of that range and that need the economic stimulation. I fully agree with those points and I thank my colleagues for raising them.
So we want new resources put into this, but we want to have input based on the lessons learned from the 16th Assembly towards more effective delivery of initiatives. It’s not so much the huge projects that I think we need as a methodical, knowledgeable and thoughtful building on the successes that we’ve had to date, and there are many.
I’d like to refer to Mr. Nadli’s vision on a renewable energy future. It’s something to shoot for. Let’s get a start on that.
