Debates of October 13, 2005 (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are in line with the statement I made earlier about the energy issues that the Cabinet read out earlier today. Mr. Speaker, my question goes to the Minister of Public Works and Services. I believe in the long run that this has to be about reduction of consumption no matter where the energy cost levels are. They go up and down. We have no idea how bad this is going to be and for how long. I think that we have to be always vigilant. We live in a very affluent society. We like to have big houses and big cars and such. We forget that we have limited resources when it comes to energy. I believe there is an important role for the government to play. One, it is the biggest consumer of energy in the North. The government can do a lot to make sure that their vehicles and all the things that we own and use are used in a most energy-efficient manner. The second thing is to provide incentives to the working poor, the homeowners, to do more to reduce consumption. I would like to know if the Minister and the Cabinet have considered any incentive programs to get the people to do whatever they can for their houses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Public Works and Services, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the Department of Public Works and Services itself, we have looked at a number of initiatives for dealing with government assets and facilities. One of the things we are doing is in the area of thermal scan to see how our buildings are operating and how much heat loss there is and where that heat loss is occurring. That is an area that we are going to be improving on as well as the building practices that we now have in place here in the Territories. We know that adds cost to the facilities up front but feel that it is important over the life of that facility that there would be savings.

As for actual incentives from the Department of Public Works and Services itself, we are not providing incentives. In the area of these thermal scans, when we are in the communities, we will be announcing that we will be able to look at private facilities and homes to do work in that area.

In the other areas of energy, as the Premier has announced, Cabinet is dealing with this issue on an ongoing basis, and has a specific item every time we sit down around the energy initiatives, and has, as well, a lead deputy amongst the deputies to deal with the issue of all departments in pooling their information. So we are working on a number of initiatives. Some of them will just give more information to the public, and some will work on programs so that we might be able to support them in lowering their energy costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to narrow my supplementary question to individual homes rather than the government, although I started on two and I might have confused the Minister. I know the Minister is referring to many of the committees and meetings and, God only knows, the studies we did in the last Assembly, spending millions of dollars. If we spent that money trying to make our homes more efficient, we might be a lot better off now. Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicated in his Minister's statement about working with the Arctic Energy Alliance and the supplementary funding that he will be bringing forward. I was assuming that in that package there would be some kind of incentive package for energy reduction of consumption. Is there anything that we can look forward to that works in that area? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there will be some areas where the money will be spent on helping individuals lower their consumption. One is the energy audits on their homes; one would be the areas, for example, on furnaces and heating systems to provide some assistance to have those systems tuned up. As we know, with a proper operating system, there can be savings in that area. There are a number of areas that we are looking at, but there are small portions that we will be able to assist homeowners with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, I really like this thermal scan thing. I think that that is something that we should use a lot more, and I know that we are going to use this for government buildings and huge buildings. I think we should somehow set up a program where individual homeowners could use this service at a low cost or no cost to see how energy efficient their homes are. Failing that, I am sure there are experts in our communities who could do this. Will the government look into helping our people do that; help with the cost of getting experts in to see where we could save more energy in our home? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we would be willing to look at a number of initiatives out there that can help people reduce their consumption of energy and the thermal scam idea is…

---Laughter

…thermal scan idea is one that is something we use on our own facilities, and when we travel in the communities we will make that available to community governments and we can look at seeing if it can be used for individual homes as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the supplementary funding that the Minister will be bringing forward will have some of this information. Could the Minister indicate when we should expect to have this information in the House, so we can have further discussion on the details of what he is proposing? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 103-15(4): Incentive Programs To Reduce Energy Consumption

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I will be bringing forward, as the Minister of Finance, a supplementary appropriation document to this House. We will be dealing with it, I think, about the middle of our sitting time here in this session. Thank you.