Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement earlier today with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I want to start by saying I was happy to see the Biomass Strategy, but I did note that it was pretty high level. Many actions noted in it were actually started years ago, but of particular concern is there were no targets or plan or basis for evaluation other than sort of a feel-good general review after 18 months from now.
As we’ve seen in Europe, the marketplace became the driving force in the shift to biomass energy after government actually placed some ambitious and mandatory targets for greenhouse gas reductions. So any kind of targets give a strategy some teeth and some basis for evaluation. So what are the Minister’s plans for leadership to actually establish targets with a schedule to be achieved? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This whole initiative going into year two is a major undertaking. We recognize that the Biomass Strategy is at a high level and as we work through our various energy plans, as we review and redo our Greenhouse Gas Strategy, as we look at all the other components of our Energy Strategy, that the debate and decision-making that’s going to take place with regard to standards and targets is going to flow from that. Thank you.
That’s kind of my concern. We’re three years almost into our mandate here and yet we’ve got a lot of debate to go before we actually do things. So I’m pretty concerned here. The Minister notes, as anybody could have noted in this strategy, that cross-departmental efforts are needed, but again there is no mechanism for merging community engagement which is called for with private enterprise and Public Works and Services’ considerable experience now in a pilot test approach to distribute a biomass energy project in each region. So I’m wondering what is the mechanism for that. There is no indication. It’s a lot of work and hopefully the thinking has been done, but what is just that one mechanism for getting that going? Thank you.
In case I hadn’t mentioned it, we are committing $60 million to this initiative. We finished year one. We are moving into year two. We are committed to community energy plans. We are also working very closely with all the other strategies within government. We are looking at government itself doing a significant number of retrofits. We are growing the market with biomass, with our efforts, with the communities, within government retrofits, within the private sector. We’ve also started discussions and planning in terms of inventory to see what type of biomass industry could be sustainable and what’s the best structure for that; is it regional or should it be territorial? So I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that we have a lot of pieces on this chessboard and a lot of them are in play and there’s a lot of work being done and there is $60 million of government money being put to this initiative to move it all forward. Thank you.
I’m glad there is a lot of work being done and I’m glad to hear that assurance. I’m just trying to pull out some of that work here, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister realizes, from his comments, that it’s an enormous task, but I’m trying to get at how far along are we at all. What is the quantity and the volumes of things we are talking about? How many furnaces do we need to change over and where are those targets to be established? So what work is actually underway to get down to the brass tacks on what the specifics are on this challenge and its opportunities? Thank you.
Once again, the Member and I are aiming for the same goal. I have been suggesting and saying right from the start that, yes, we have to do these broad strategies. Yes, we have to have that long and intense debate about targets, standards. In the meantime, we should be doing things on the ground and we shared the information with the Members about the dozens of initiatives that Public Works has taken in its mandate for retrofits. We are doing some very innovative things with ground source heat pumps. We have initiatives with wind, we are moving on the mini-hydro with Lutselk’e, in addition to the mass amount of work I think we are doing with biomass. We are getting things on the ground.
People in the residential sector are buying into this process. In the industrial sector, they are too, because a lot of the big buildings are government buildings. There are contracts that go with that. We started the work to look at the secondary value-added industry with biomass production. So we’re trying to hit all these initiatives on the go, but we want to get things on the ground and I believe that we are doing that.
Just on the government ones alone, we showed the thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas savings and the savings in terms of actual dollars that will be put into a revolving fund that will allow for the retrofits to continue. So I think we can demonstrate in almost every sector that we have work underway as we still try to do the broader planning. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t want to take away from the work that we are doing. As enormous as the Minister makes it sound and as modest as I feel it is, I don’t want to take away from that. I will note that we have a 10 percent reduction target for the GNWT, which is one-twelfth of the NWT. One-twelfth times one-tenth, that’s one one hundred-twentieth of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Northwest Territories. So it’s pretty modest. We know that’s way out of date and typically small. So I’m hoping we are getting going on that strategy
Let me just say, will the Minister commit to bringing forward a multiyear costed plan for consideration prior to the next business plans with real targets that can be evaluated from year to year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As he talks about our modest efforts and what he sees as miniscule goals and targets, we do have a project, just one project that I’ll point to which is the Taltson Hydro Project that could reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent. We know we are already saving thousands of tonnes just with the work the government has done, let alone all the things that are going to come into play. We’ve committed to and we are going to start the process in April 2010 to renew the Greenhouse Gas Strategy with a full intent to have a final product by April 2011. It will speak to a lot of the issues the Member talks about. As well, we will look at the second edition, basically, of the Biomass Strategy and is refined and is more practical in terms of its application. Those issues the Member talks about will be addressed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Time for question period has expired. Item 9, written questions .The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I request unanimous consent to return to item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
---Unanimous consent granted.
