Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Environment in regard to the biomass initiative in Scandinavia. I think it took them 30 years to get to where they are today. We don’t have 30 years. I’d like to ask the Minister, in light of the efforts by this government to look at biomass, which are mostly taking place in larger centres, what is this government doing to ensure that we are able to put biomass projects into communities such as Jean Marie or other communities who have resources or have the assets in those communities and expand those systems so that we can cut down our dependence on fossil fuels during the term of this government?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has earmarked and this Assembly has approved a significant amount of money, for the first time ever, towards alternative energy, one of those sources being biomass. And, yes, we have on the books a pilot project that we’d like to look at. In Jean Marie, we’re looking at expanded waste recovery. We’re looking at wood pellets both in institutions and in communities. We want to move that plan forward. We’re waiting, with considerable interest, on the specific recommendations that the Member is going to bring forward with his colleague Mr. Bromley as a result of their fact finding trip to Scandinavia where they learned very many valuable things that they can share with us that will help us set our policy base and direction going forward as a government.
I believe that this government has to consider pilot projects of some sort. We have two budget cycles left to go and I think it’s important that we get some of these projects off the ground and show the smaller communities that they also are part of the equation of this biomass strategy that this government is considering. I’d like to ask the Minister if there is a possibility of seeing some of these projects, such as Jean Marie, put forward by way of pilot projects so that we can move on it before the next budget cycle. I believe it’s this fall.
Yes, there have been millions of dollars voted for this year, in the neighbourhood of $15 million or so, to get us started on the very many projects, both in biomass, wind, possibly geothermal, mini-hydro. There is a whole host of areas that we want to do work. Now it is incumbent upon us to roll out the work plans and the implementation, to get as many of these projects towards the construction stage as possible.
I also believe that this is a project that can stimulate a lot of our small, aboriginal communities by way of development and by way of developing for a sector around our communities. I’d like to ask the Minister in regards to looking at the forest management strategies that we have and considering the usage of these wood products in our communities, around our communities, so that we can get more usage out of those wood products and depending, continuing to use fossil fuels.
As we move as a government on our very ambitious alternative Energy Strategy on the area of biomass, very clearly one of the issues for us as a Legislature and a government is the pursuit of the secondary industry that would see us be able to manufacture wood pellets, set up communities and regions to be able to do the chipping or the pelletizing that may be necessary, to look at the employment opportunities, to work with communities as well to combine some of the value-added benefits of biomass with the concern in communities in the boreal forest to be better fireproofed when it comes to wildfire where we could set out bands of forest around the communities to be managed and maintained over the years, to offer protection as well as a source of energy. There is a whole piece of work here that has to be done. The frame has to be put in place. This is a long-term commitment. This is our very first steps. We want to make sure we set the right foundation. We agree with the Member; this is very important.
Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
As we all know, nothing gets done in this government without some sort of a policy. I’d like to ask the Minister, is there a policy being developed that can basically enhance the use of biofuels in the Northwest Territories and also ensure that the programs and services this government delivers considers that as a means of meeting the goals of the Northwest Territories by way of reducing greenhouse gases and our dependency on fossil fuels?
Work is being done by ENR. The work has been done and supported by the Climate Change Committee and the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee as well as Managing This Land when it comes to these various issues of the biomass strategy, moving forward with the technology, the issue, the impact on greenhouse gases, all those are part of the variable that we are considering as we deal with this issue as a government.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
