Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently, I think it was on the 5th of October, Minister Miltenberger said, and I quote from Hansard: “Most of us would accept the reality that extreme weather is now upon us. Indeed, in fact, the science of climate change is firm, unwavering and conservative.”
Over my eight years in office, I have been a keen student of climate change and I’ve had a particular interest in seeing how it is reflected on the ground here in the NWT. It behooves good government to face the realities of what is happening and to face issues frankly and to deal with them.
As I go over my observations of NWT impacts from climate change, the exercise is not meant to be fearmongering, but rather to motivate clear thinking and thoughtful response to help mitigate and adapt the serious impacts upon our people and the society we live in. Here are some of the real events and costs we are experiencing as a result of climate change, impacts, at least events clearly aligned with climate change science. The community of Nahanni Butte was almost completely flooded after record- setting downpour and snowmelt in the mountains, costing millions in damage and having impacts on people’s homes and lives. The loss of the store led to impacts on people’s diets and access to groceries.
We are going into our fourth year of extreme drought, as low water levels have cost $50 million in diesel subsidies – on top of normal diesel budget – for electricity in Yellowknife alone over the past two years, with no sign of relief.
Recording-setting severe forest fires claiming huge swaths of boreal forest and caribou winter habitat in the North and South Slave and Deh Cho, costing almost $100 million over the last two years, have emitted millions of tons of additional carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Just this fall, Tuktoyaktuk was again battered by storms and rising sea levels, damaging infrastructure and leaving a GNWT building hanging out over the sea, with unknown and ongoing costs to infrastructure. The island protecting the community harbour is rapidly disappearing and despite pouring resources into shoring up the land against this erosion, the loss of permafrost has meant the land is being easily washed away by these new unleashed forces of nature. The shoreline loss of some nearby areas is some 10 metres per year.
The Mackenzie River, the major artery to bring needed annual resupply to communities, has become less navigable each year due to periods of low water, causing delayed resupply or substantial cost for air resupply and increasing cost of living in already expensive communities. This represents a stressful lack of security for community well-being in the lower Mackenzie River Valley.
Melting permafrost is causing millions of dollars in public/private commercial and institutional infrastructure annually, with exponentially more to come. A startling example was the $14 million Arctic Tern Youth Facility in Inuvik that we wrote off after only a few years of use. As I mentioned, great new impacts are substantially greater by an order of magnitude.
Caribou numbers fail to recover and even continue to decline, undoubtedly at least partially related to climate change, with serious generational impacts on our cultures, food security and community self-sufficiency. These impacts reverberate throughout the ecosystem and are emotional and tragic in the lives of many people.
Highway and airport impacts from loss of permafrost, Highway No. 3, for example, has cost millions of dollars per year for a decade. Ongoing damage to the Inuvik and Hay River airstrips have cost us millions. The shorter construction season and permafrost challenge in a warming climate have added tens of millions in original cost estimates, most recently increased by up to another $32 million of the Inuvik-Tuk Highway at the halfway point in construction. The long-term viability and maintenance costs for this fragile road are in question given the projected impacts of a warming climate.
Mr. Speaker, the one thing we can be certain of is there are impacts everywhere we look for them. In some areas, they may not be apparent yet or they may be the opposite impact from an adjacent area in our large jurisdiction. For example, one area may suffer extreme drought and an adjacent region extreme precipitation and flooding. One area may have no impacts apparent, yet wake up the next day to find their world vastly changed. This is consistent with the science which shows a high variability in how impacts are expressed in any one area. It also means impacts are difficult to predict and forecast, with the exception that there is no normal anymore.
This means that actions to prepare for impacts must be well thought out and must take into consideration high variability and weather that comes with climate change. Clearly, in recent years, the dollar and human costs of impacts have soared to hundreds of millions of dollars annually and much anguish with costs forecast to increase exponentially over time.
In Paris this December, governments and other entities from all over the globe will gather to decide on required action, but as the Minister has said, every jurisdiction must do its part, and we are no exception. Things can happen much more effectively and quicker at the level of subnational governments. The challenge is how to be effective and efficient in both mitigating, adapting and planning for unavoidable impacts of climate change. We are no longer in a position to avoid some of these substantial impacts.
As we know, climate change affects every aspect of our lives: food and security, cost of living, housing, energy, jobs, public and private infrastructure from homes to hospitals. A thorough and comprehensive plan for mitigation, adaptation and dealing with the unavoidable impacts is now overdue if we are to minimize impacts and cost to our people and our government. Within that, a detailed strategy giving specific targets, actions and a schedule for weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels and switching to renewable energy is required, as acknowledged but not acted upon in our Greenhouse Gas Strategy.
Such a process requires work to thoroughly understand at the community level what the science tells us, what our vulnerabilities are, and how we are going to address them. It requires working with all entities to determine implications to our public, private and commercial infrastructure, to the health of our citizens, to food security, to economic development, and to the roles that each entity can play in addressing these. It means wrestling with the realities of the costs that we are experiencing and that we know will increase in bringing those into our fiscal planning.
In 2008 the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Report was written, I believe, by ENR, and concluded with a short, very brief three paragraph summary on planning for the future. It was what I would call a very light document. This is now woefully inadequate, as I’m sure we all understand.
Mr. Speaker, colleagues, I hope you will support the call to bring this understanding to a comprehensive plan that will serve our public by minimizing and managing costs and impacts of climate change to the extent possible and preparing effective efforts to best deal with unavoidable impacts that we know will come.
I will be calling for a recorded vote, and I thank you, colleagues. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member is asking for a recorded vote. All those in favour, please stand.
Mr. Bromley, Mr. Menicoche, Mr. Blake, Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Bouchard, Mr. Nadli, Mr. Hawkins, Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Moses.
All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.
Mr. Yakeleya, Mr. Beaulieu, Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Miltenberger, Mr. McLeod -Yellowknife South, Mr. Lafferty, Mr. Ramsay, Mr. McLeod - Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. All those in favour, nine; all those opposed, zero; abstentions, eight. Motion is carried.
---Carried
Item 17, first reading of bills. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5 on our Order Paper, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mahsi.
---Unanimous consent granted
