Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure who to direct my questions to, but when I think back to the last time that the price of crude oil went off the charts and I see what’s happening before us today, I would like to see our government get very proactive. There is no excuse why we as Northerners should be hovering in a corner someplace, scared with this change in crude oil and how it’s going to affect the cost of home heating oil and gasoline to drive our vehicles. There’s no excuse for the cost of living portion associated with heating our homes. There is absolutely no excuse for it.
As I said in my Member’s statement, we are sitting in the middle of millions of hectares of sustainable, renewable biomass and we’re not doing anything with it. Now this wave is coming over us again and here we are unprepared.
What proactive measures can this government take to ensure that people have an alternative to oil and propane heating devices in their homes?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a significant number of things that the government is doing. I agree with the Member that there is nothing stopping individual families from going out and installing a woodstove, especially in the larger communities where they have access to the supply and they can get the woodstoves insured. With our Biomass Strategy, we have converted a lot of our own buildings and other communities’ buildings to biomass. We’re, in fact, looking at work on the value-added piece with pellets. We’re looking at what’s the best technology to use in combined heat and power in some of the smaller communities as it pertains to being able to do that with biomass or some examples in addition to the many rebates and things that we have available to assist individual homeowners.
Rebates are fine, but when you look at the cost of installation and the cost of the appliances themselves, not every family, even in the larger communities like he’s saying, has the kind of money sitting around in their back pocket to go out and do this. We need more help from this government. I know it’s a lot of money, but if you look at all the things that we spend a lot of money on, we spend millions of dollars on studying the kinds of things that Mr. Miltenberger’s talking about. I’m asking for something quick, tangible and real.
The government should just phone a manufacturer of woodstoves and pellet stoves and buy a trainload, buy them wholesale, get them in here so people can access them. Get a program started so people can do this. It’s fine to say there’s a rebate out there, go apply for it.
What can the Minister do specifically in light of these prices of oil which we’re going to see increasing here over the next days and who knows where it’s going to stop? What can this government proactively do? Do something crazy. Buy a trainload.
Doing something crazy is not normally a guarantee for any type of longevity in the business that we’re in. I take the Member’s point; we’ve been doing things now for the life of this government in terms of investing in alternative energy in a whole range of areas, including biomass. We have, I would suggest, in most communities, stores that stock and sell stoves. There’s assistance there for people. The question is, and the debate would be, what the role of government is. Is it to go into everybody’s home and say we’re here to put in a woodstove or is it to help people make the right choices and set themselves up to burn wood?
In many communities, like the one I live in, we have woodlots now that are part of the Fire Abatement Program right around the town, where you only have to go five minutes to access firewood. I think we’re doing a number of things. We’re always prepared to look at ways to increase our support. We also want to encourage and work with individual families.
This is an issue where there’s going to be payback, price of oil. The Brent Crude was almost $110. West Texas Crude is very close to $100 a barrel. So we know that the payback in terms of the cost of installation is going to be shorter the higher the price of oil goes.
Okay, thank you. I agree that the government has been doing some things. I can see, yes, they have been making some steps in the right direction, but it never seems like it’s really enough. The Minister says should the government be responsible for putting these woodstoves or pellet stoves into people’s homes, they should figure it out and go out and get it themselves, we’ll create the woodlot, you go buy the woodstove. I hear what the Minister is saying. He says it’s not the role of government. But you know what is the role of government? All the public housing and homeownership housing and other housing programs that are out there. How many of those houses have access at the time of construction to things like woodstoves? What about the bills that we’re paying for heating oil?
I agree with the Member that the whole issue of biomass is not a singular event, but it’s a process that we’ve embarked on as a Territory and it’s going to take time to get it implemented fully. We’re setting up systems to work with communities and individuals, institutions, other governments, community energy plans. Making sure we deal with some of the value-added pieces when you look at pellets. We are doing, and we’ll continue to do, a significant amount. Sixty million dollars is what this government put towards alternative energy. A good portion of that has been tied into trying to improve the existence of biomass in the communities, all communities, and I think we’ve done that. We’re going to look once again across government to see where we can convert our own operations as well.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Maybe I’m trying to oversimplify it, but people couldn’t afford to pay their heating bills this past winter and now that the prices are going up, all we’re saying is help, do something, we need to get ahead of that cost and we need help to do that. I know I speak for many people in the Northwest Territories when I say if you could just get that little bit of help needed to get that installation of something, people would be out there pursuing healthy activities, collecting, harvesting, cutting, splitting firewood, taking it into their houses. People would receive it. People are just saying help. Like I said, we couldn’t afford it at the prices it was at all winter. We’re going into a time that by next winter who knows what’s going to happen with the oil producing nations. I just want this government to have a very proactive eye on what’s coming down the pipe and we need help.
I didn’t hear a question there, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
