Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Infrastructure, also responsible for the energy file. It seems like a lot of politicians these days are promising to put their efforts and money into revitalizing the fossil fuel sector. Meanwhile, a news report yesterday indicates that green business is actually outgrowing the rest of the economy, attracting billions of dollars in investment. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister: what steps will the government take to grow a new, sustainable sector of the economy by exploiting the growing number of businesses and entrepreneurs bringing green, renewable energy technology to the table? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are already taking significant steps to leverage new federal funding, everyone in this House knows that, to support these new initiatives that we are laying out. We are making unprecedented investments to support energy initiatives across the Northwest Territories. This year, we will invest over $60 million in projects and initiatives intended to support secure, reliable, and sustainable energy in the Northwest Territories. All of this investment, we know, will support economic growth, particularly to the businesses and entrepreneurs around this green, renewable energy table. Also, key to all this, in discussions we had in the House today to our long-term economics sustainability in the Northwest Territories, is to bring clean and affordable energy to industry in the Northwest Territories, and that would be the Taltson energy project. As you see in many of our new projects that we lay out across the Northwest Territories through infrastructure, we have steadily increased our solar panels and our biomass.
Thank you to the Minister for reminding us of the considerable investment that is going to be being made in the North, and I really truly hope that it does get in the hands of entrepreneurs and small businesses. I have asked this before, and so I will ask it again: will the Minister commit the government to study the energy microgrid concept that has been similar to what SSi Energy is proposing in Fort Providence? It seems like it would be a very sound and great solution for small communities.
I would love to update the House on this particular question. We have met with SSi Micro and, actually, our staff have gone to the community of Fort Providence to understand the system that SSi actually has in place right now and to discuss the potential for integration of a microgrid into the technologies into the system. We are interested in learning a lot more about what SSi has to offer, about their proposal and the potential of their graphite battery, specifically what they have proposed to use as an energy recovery and disbursement system in their system. We will continue to work with them and see if this is a situation that SSi is proposing that could be worked in Fort Providence but maybe in other communities across the system.
Thank you to the Minister. I really appreciate that his department and his staff are undertaking endeavours to communicate with SSi Energy and the community of Fort Providence. We look forward to being posted on that in the future. The Minister talked earlier about continuing to vest in wind and solar, and so my question is: what ongoing support can the Minister offer to the number of solar energy companies starting up across the NWT? Can the Minister also convince his energy division and particularly Cabinet colleagues to increase the net metering allowance from 15 kilowatt an hour to 50 kilowatt an hour, like our friends in the Yukon are doing?
What I can tell the Member is that the government has over $330 million to invest in electricity infrastructure in the Northwest Territories going forward. That is going to result in more construction jobs, local jobs, and suppliers where it's possible. In addition, the GNWT is investing over $31 million in the Low Carbon Economy Fund that we announced here earlier this year, which will leverage over $70 million over the next three years. This will also support the local builders and contractors and suppliers who do energy retrofits and install renewable energy in the system. Fifty-percent rebates have been available through the Arctic Energy Alliance to residents and businesses in thermal-zone communities and provide an excellent incentive for new installations emerging in over 25 diesel communities.
To the point about raising the net metering, that is going to put a lot of pressure on the system and is something the Department of Finance and NCPC would have to have a serious look at. It would have serious implications on all residents across the system, and that is something that we are going to have be very careful about because, when we went out and talked to the people of the Northwest Territories, they made it very clear to us that we had to have a secure, affordable, and sustainable plan going forward. This could put more pressure on the system and make it more expensive for everybody.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister for his reply. We can certainly leave the solar and net metering discussion for another day, but the NWT's reliance on diesel-power generation is one of our biggest challenges. We all know that. There is a growing sector of renewable diesel -- I will repeat that: renewable diesel -- which can replace fossil fuels without engine modifications and greatly reduce emissions. The City of Vancouver has been changing over their entire fleet to renewable diesel. Will the Minister commit the government to research renewable diesel as a possible option for the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to update this House that we are already looking at this. We are investigating this potential of renewable diesel technologies. The one thing I can say is that there is one contractor supplying western Canada and confirmed that it has been deployed in one major city, which is probably the City of Vancouver.
We have concerns over this thing. When I talked to the deputy about this specific possibility, we were worried about the life cycle of this stuff and the storage capacity that we have in the communities and how long it will be good for. It is way more expensive than the price of diesel fuel right now. That goes back to the question of what the people of the Northwest Territories told us; they want a secure, affordable, sustainable energy plan going forward. With only one supplier in the country and it being more expensive, right now, at this point, it is probably not viable, but we will continue to monitor this thing. With further hopes and further developments, maybe this can become successful, and we will be able to implement it into our system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
