Thank you, Madam Speaker. I just want to follow up from my earlier questions with the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I understand there is a report coming out on the cost-effectiveness of our respective program for greenhouse gas reductions. The Minister has obviously got the results as a result of the analysis he did in response to my questions.
What sort of contemplations are in place, are happening towards now responding to that information we have so that we can increase our cost-effectiveness on the basis of these analyses? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. To use a phrase used in this House by you, we are looking to see if we can do things better. Clearly, we started back in 2007 or thereabouts with the Greenhouse Gas Strategy. We have worked our way through or are partway through the second iteration and we’re going to be looking at what improvements can be made to our work, to the significant investments that we make to the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and to new initiatives, and how do we look at and measure what’s most effective in achieving the various goals. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. Will the Minister also be incorporating into that some other ways of urging this to happen in a systemic way? Right now we have lots of one-off actions where we’ll replace a boiler here or subsidize somebody to do something, but we obviously need systemic actions that work across the public and private and government sector.
Will the Minister be considering some new initiatives there that, rather than nickel and diming here, actually goes towards the degree of action that we need? Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, rather than debate the details of the policy approaches, I’m not sure what suggestions the Member has in mind. For example, we would be more than willing to appear before committee with all the appropriate folks to have a discussion about those detailed issues.
Right now we are spending millions on rebate programs, support programs, incentive programs to encourage individuals and businesses to convert. As a territorial government, we have embarked upon a government-wide biomass retrofit process, in some cases with hydro as well. So we have, I believe, moved past the one-off pilot issue. There are still some pilots that we deal with. At the same time, we are fully engaged in our role at ENR to work with the development of industry for biomass, for example, in the Northwest Territories. It would probably be best to have that kind of fulsome discussion at a table where we’re not bound by the rules of the House and we can have more free-flowing discussion. Thank you.
Thanks again for the Minister’s response. I know he’d like me to answer the questions that I’m asking here, but I think that’s his job and obviously he has the resources. I’m happy to come up with my own suggestion, but he’s got a lot of professionals working for him, so I think those are the people we want to engage.
Does the Minister agree that regulatory legislative sorts of actions can be quite cost-effective – they don’t cost millions of dollars – and are a toolbox that we should be looking at to get the objectives achieved that we know we need to achieve? Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, I would encourage the Member to share his good ideas as opposed to us doing what we think is appropriate and wait for Mr. Bromley to say whether we’ve got it right, in his opinion, or not. It’s a much tougher way and much more time-consuming way to do business. I would encourage the Member to share the specifics. We can arrange a meeting, if committee is interested, and we can make this as collaborative as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thanks for that, Madam Speaker. Again the Minister didn’t answer my question. There’s a whole toolbox out there of regulatory and legislative means that actually present systemic solutions to the greenhouse gas reduction challenge.
Does the Minister agree and is he willing to look into that toolbox to see what might be apt to flow in the Northwest Territories, and that would go beyond our very specific programs that we have in place to replace this boiler and building with that boiler? Thank you.
Thank you. I’m not sure if that’s code for carbon tax, but we’re prepared to look at all these tools. In fact, we have looked extensively at a carbon tax, as well, and what systemic changes are there, policy changes, legislative changes that are there when you look at our environment, our cold weather environment, the fact that we rely so heavily for diesel for heating at this point, the high cost of living within those factors. Of course, we are always looking to see what we can do, which is why we’re spending so much money on biomass, trying to advance solar, wind, batteries, we’re looking at hydro expansion, grid expansion and those type of things. So keeping in mind, as well, we have about 597 days left until the next election at this point, we have to see what is doable and possible. As well, we have one more business planning cycle that we’ll be starting probably early April, as well, which would start that final process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. The time for oral questions has expired. Moving on, on the orders, item 9, written questions. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. I request unanimous consent to return to item 6 on the Order Paper, recognition of visitors in the gallery.
---Unanimous consent granted
