Thank you, Madam Speaker. Before Christmas I asked the Minister of Environment a written question on the cost-effectiveness of the various initiatives his department is funding as part of the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. At the time, I got the impression that the Minister was surprised by the question, which was not my intent. So I wanted to check, was the Minister surprised to be asked about the cost-effectiveness of his department’s greenhouse gas reduction initiatives? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll let Minister Miltenberger answer the question. Technically speaking, you’re asking the Minister not about the content of what’s in the purview of his department but you’re asking about his feeling about something, his opinion. It’s a little bit close to the edge, but I’ll let Minister Miltenberger go ahead. Please, Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. After the number of years we’ve been in the House together, nothing the Member asks surprises me any further. Thank you.
---Laughter
Thanks for the Minister’s response. I appreciate that and I also appreciate being close to the edge. That means I’m doing my job.
Madam Speaker, the Minister may or may not have been surprised, but I’m fairly sure I have not seen an analysis like this before. While the response left out an analysis of the rebate program that was requested, some programs are clearly more cost-effective than others.
Why, after running greenhouse gas reduction programs for over a decade, has the Minister never presented us with an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of these various greenhouse gas reduction programs? Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, there is work underway to in fact produce such a document. Thank you.
I don’t know whether it’s in your purview to direct a Minister to answer a question, but that certainly did not answer the question.
The Diavik Diamond Mine has done some great work in reducing their emissions by installing wind turbines up at their mine site and they deserve full credit for this. Yet, in his response, the Minister claims the emission reductions from the Diavik wind program go to GNWT.
Did the Minister get permission from Diavik to claim credits – and these are very valuable credits – for their actions? Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, we are collating all the greenhouse gas savings that we can across the territory. Absolutely, Diavik deserves full credit. If the Member says they are valuable credits, if it’s political credit, absolutely. If they’re using them for some type of carbon trading credit, that’s totally their purview, but when we look at the success in the Northwest Territories, we can’t just look at government. We have a very significant private sector and industry, the diamond mines, and Diavik has, in fact, invested money. It’s saving millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases and it’s something that as a territory we constantly point to with great pride. Not only the GNWT but private industry, as well, stepped up to the plate.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. If I had wanted the private emissions reductions cost efficiency, which I suspect would be a lot higher than GNWT, then I would have asked of that, but in fact, I asked for the government data.
I want to be sure that I do not surprise any other Ministers when I ask about the cost-effectiveness of their greenhouse gas reducing initiatives. We need to be sure that we are getting the best bang for the rare dollar that is allocated to this programming.
Will the Minister commit to working with his colleagues in ITI, Public Works and Services, NTPC and the Housing Corporation to ensure that the cost-effectiveness of greenhouse gas emissions initiatives is included in future programs, evaluations and updates? Just a note, I do appreciate that there will be a report coming forward and I’ll very much look forward to that.
We will incorporate the issue of cost-effectiveness of greenhouse gases as we look at doing things like LNG, like hydro, like biomass, solar, wind. We will look at those and make sure we include that in our calculations.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
