Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Constituents are saying their home heating and power bills are higher than they’ve ever been. Just last week I tabled a petition from residents of the NWT calling for more action on climate change.
Government expense is increasing with increasing damage to infrastructure. We all know that oil is just going to get more expensive and that climate change is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It is our dependence on fossil fuels that is creating this crisis.
The Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the symbols for danger and opportunities. Today I’d like to stress the opportunities we have.
In a January newspaper I read, Superior Propane was introducing micro-combined heat and power units. These systems provide both heat and power at 90 percent efficiency instead of the usual 28 percent efficiency that most community diesel generators run at. This great idea is something that a few Northerners like the Snowshoe Inn in Fort Providence and Gruben’s Camp in Tuktoyaktuk have been doing for years. With new quieter technology we can see micro-combined heat and power use throughout the territory. If the Power Corporation got onto this, they would have a new source of revenue, selling both power and heat to large buildings like schools, northern stores, arenas and so on.
The Public Utilities Board has just made a decision to implement net metering, or close to it. Net metering, or the sale of home-generated renewable electricity into community grids, has great potential for reducing power bills. Northern businesses are gaining experience in installing these solar panel systems, recognizing a business opportunity here too.
Homeowners have been seeing the top savings of wood pellet heat for years now. A recent study by the Arctic Energy Alliance showed that we could use 20-foot shipping containers to bring affordable pellets into all communities with barge access right to Tuk, in fact.
Lentil farmers in Saskatchewan use containers to ship their lentils overseas and we can use the same methods to ship wood pellets.
Combined with the plans for a wood pellet plant in Enterprise, this could make Hay River the bio-energy hub of the whole Western Arctic.
All of the opportunities I’ve just mentioned make financial sense right now, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got local businesses stepping up and taking the lead and we need to support them.
We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Mahsi
---Unanimous consent granted
We know the price of oil is not going to be coming down. We know that President Obama will soon put a price on carbon emissions and Canada will follow. The only question is when, not if. Many in our business community are responding to these opportunities and so are many home and building owners.
To reduce the cost of living, we need to find ways to support the rapid rollout of these opportunities to everyone in the North. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
