Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know and Cabinet knows, we have had some recent retrofits of some government infrastructure in Hay River. We appreciate these very much. Of course, I made reference today in my statement to the work that’s going on to construct a new regional health centre for Hay River. I have a question for the Minister of Public Works and Services.
Over the years we have talked a lot in this House about how to make new infrastructure owned and operated by the GNWT more energy efficient. I’d like to ask the Minister of Public Works and Services, are there any particular building techniques or building materials or technology or innovation that has gone into the planning of the new Hay River Health Centre that would see our costs of operation for that new facility be reasonable and energy conserving over the next many years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Public Works does a lot of energy retrofits. We track all of the greenhouse gases that we save through energy retrofits. We track all of the money that we save by using energy retrofits and installing biomass in our buildings, then we put that money back into more energy retrofits and biomass.
With the hospital, we will be using a biomass heating system and the envelope of the building would be of a high energy standard. Thank you.
I’m very happy to hear that and the Minister referred very specifically to energy retrofits, but I’d like to ask: has there been a point at which the Department of Public Works and Services has introduced any new guidelines that ensure energy efficiency in the construction, not just the operation through biomass, for new infrastructure? Thank you.
Yes, we try to use the latest energy-efficient methods when we do new construction, as well, at this time. Thank you.
It’s no secret that we live in one of the harshest climates on the planet. It would reason well that our government, when investing millions of dollars in new infrastructure, we want to be on the leading edge, cutting edge. We would want to be the showcase of energy efficiency.
Again, I’m just curious, has the Department of Public Works and Services done anything above and beyond the standard national building codes for the various types of buildings that they build that would see our costs reduced to operate on an ongoing basis in the actual construction? I appreciate the biomass piece, but on the actual construction of buildings from here on out that would make them more energy efficient. Thank you.
Yes, the methods that are employed when we do new construction, the insulation value and the envelope of the building are designed to be as energy efficient as possible. So with the rising costs of energy right across the country, when we build anything new, we do that with the concept of having as energy efficient as possible construction as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand it may cost a little more at the beginning when constructing a new building to put energy-saving materials and planning in place.
Does the Department of Public Works and Services have a plan or a template for a follow-up after that building has been operating for a while to see what the return on those initial investments are in a higher energy saving? Do they have something in place to monitor that so we can hear the accounting of what those savings are? Thank you.
With new buildings, it is anticipated that the energy costs would be much lower than other buildings built previously. There is no actual savings because we don’t have a comparative data, but when we upgrade older buildings into this type of energy-efficient envelope, increasing insulation values, we then take that and use those for all of the savings of the fuel that we burn or that we don’t burn, I suppose, on these buildings and then redistribute it into all of our energy programs.
For the new buildings, like I said, we would see a lot less cost than it would be having not constructed the building with energy-efficient methods and biomass. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
