Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask a question to the lead Minister of the gas issue in Norman Wells. DPW I believe is the Minister working with the town. I want to ask the Minister if the Premier communicated to him that the town council had requested some participants to be involved in their committee that looks for long-term solutions on the conversion of alternative heating sources and if the GNWT is going to play an important role in part of the town committee and this gas issue.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Public Works and Services, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of natural gas supply in the municipality of Norman Wells has been a concern raised by the community for quite a few years now, as far back as the 14th Assembly. It became a very serious concern as Imperial Oil had indicated during the life of the 15th Assembly that they would be shutting down their supply. After a lot of discussion, which included ourselves and the Premier of the day, the company decided that they would supply another four years. So we’re on the second year of that commitment and we’re continuing to look at the long-term solutions with the municipality.
The community has done a lot of good work. They have been very proactive. They have engaged consultants and some technical expertise from our departments. I think they are moving at quite a good pace. There have been proposals submitted. There are options they have to work on, however, those haven’t been formalized and that work will continue. The Premier has conveyed the discussion that he has had with the municipality with our department.
The Town of Norman Wells wants to have the GNWT part of their committee, to be involved, not just to report to them when they’re asking for a report or update. I want to ask the Minister again, is the government actively involved in the committee as one of the committee members looking at this solution to deal with the supply of alternative source heating for the community?
Within our government we have the Ministerial Energy Coordinating Committee and through that committee we’ve set up a subcommittee that involves many of the departments across our government that deal with this issue that Norman Wells is facing. The chair of that subcommittee is the regional director. He’s in contact with the community on a regular basis. We have people in attendance at all the meetings that they have. I think they had one yesterday. We had our assistant deputy minister there, along with other government representatives. As to whether they sit formally or have been incorporated as part of the municipal committee, I can’t confirm that. I certainly would have to follow that up.
The town has indicated that when they go to a propane solution for the heating of the community and the residents, they would look towards millions of dollars to be invested to bring in the propane tanks and converting the whole town to that source of heating. I want to ask the Minister if he’s going to bring forward a discussion paper to this government or the next government to look at helping the Town of Norman Wells with the financial assistance to help the residents and possibly the businesses to look at converting some of their stoves, fridges, washers, dryers, furnaces, to help them with the stress of finding this new source of heating.
The community of Norman Wells has not reached that stage where they have put a price tag, nor have they reached the point where they are deciding, or in a position to decide, whether they are going to go with propane or heating fuel. There is a lot of discussion that has to take place. There are some proposals on the table with a price tag on it. There are other factors that have to be considered. The proposal that has been presented to the community does not include the residents, does not include some of the commercial buildings. There has to be further analysis and we’d have to decide on next steps from that point on.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just recently the pipeline has sprung a leak in Alberta and just outside of Wrigley. Now there’s an emergency to the town of Norman Wells and looking at an emergency situation here. I’ll ask the Minister if his officials are in the community as we speak today, looking at how they can deal with the issue of helping them deal with this emergency. As noted by the MACA bureaucrat that this wasn’t considered an emergency, our mayor wasn’t very happy in Norman Wells. I want to ask the Minister what he is doing to look at the emergency issue in Norman Wells as we speak today on the leak of the pipeline in the valley.
It’s not within my area of responsibility to declare emergencies within the municipalities. That falls under a different department. I can confirm to the Member that we have been actively involved with the municipality. We have people on the ground. Our assistant deputy minister was in Norman Wells yesterday. We’ve had some good discussions. Imperial Oil was also at the meeting. Enbridge Pipelines was also at the meetings. There is a lot of concern within the municipality as the Plains Midwest Canada Pipeline sprung a leak and it had impacts that affected the community. We thought those issues would be resolved as that piece of pipeline was repaired. The request was placed with the Alberta Government to put the pipeline back on line. We have since, very recently, been made aware that there is a further pipeline leak just outside the community of Wrigley. Enbridge has engaged their staff. They’re on site right now. NEB has sent representatives and they’re looking at finding solutions to deal with that. That has compounded the situation in Norman Wells.
Imperial Oil has informed us that they’re putting further tanks on line as they need to be able to store the crude that they produce as the natural gas is a by-product of their production of crude. They’re putting two tanks on the line. We expect one to be in service today and another one tomorrow. Both would allow for another additional week of supply. We calculate that there would be roughly five weeks of supply in the system, and we’re also looking at a synthetic natural gas conversion unit which mixes air with propane that would carry us through. There’s one in the municipality that’s being tested today and there is another one that is being dismantled in Calgary that will be brought up if required.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
