Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am appreciative of a lot of the work that the Department of Infrastructure is doing in regard to district heating and cogeneration. However, this is one of those situations where the technology exists in many jurisdictions. It's proven. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions. It makes heating bills cheaper, but it requires a system-wide rethink. It requires community plans to ensure that the largest facilities are clustered. It requires making sure our power plants are built next to our water treatment plans so they can share energy. Presently, that kind of coordination is not being done by the GNWT. Another huge gap in this area is breaking into the residential market such that people can heat their houses off of a district heating system. My question for the Minister is: what steps are being taken by the Department of Infrastructure so we can have people heat their houses using district heating? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a biomass district heating system for several apartment buildings in Yellowknife. The GNWT has $50 million in combined grant funding until 2024, under the Greenhouse Gas Grant program, for governments and for buildings and industry. That is available to support district heating systems across the Northwest Territories. The Arctic Energy Alliance also has funding to support biomass heating, as well.
I am appreciative of that work, and I know the NWT Housing Corporation has been connecting some of its buildings using district heating and putting pellet boilers in. When we do this analysis, the City of Yellowknife knows better than no one. They actually won an award for 2018 for connecting their facilities, and it has saved them money. It's proven to work to get the pipes in the ground. There is no better place than downtown Yellowknife to implement district heating and connect all of those large towers. However, we do not own those towers. The City of Yellowknife is not willing to become a utility, so is the Minister of Infrastructure willing to put a plan together to put district heating in downtown Yellowknife?
I know the City of Yellowknife has looked at this, and they would be eligible for 75 percent of funding under the Greenhouse Gas Grant program for governments if the city decides to undertake that kind of project. We will continue to work with the city if we need to, to be able to provide this assistance to them.
This is really the heart of the problem is that the federal funding is sitting there. Someone can access it. It reduces heating costs, but we are asking municipalities who are already underfunded to essentially take that on and then start providing heating to people, which requires setting up an entire utility. I really don't think we can put that ask on our underfunded community governments right now. Fortunately, the Minister of Infrastructure is also the Minister for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. Perhaps we can give that board of deputy ministers something to do. Is the Minister willing to change the mandate of the Power Corporation to include the option of being a utility for heating?
At this point, this is not something that is being contemplated. NTPC, the Power Corporation, role is to provide reliable electrical power.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it's a little rich for us to say it's not our mandate to provide home heating and then to tell the communities, which it's clearly not their mandate, to all of a sudden expand and to become a utility. Is the Minister willing to approach the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, where that federal funding is sitting, to fund a territory-wide feasibility study of biomass district heating, and we can find the most cost-effective way to do this for every community in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It is possible if a suitable project came along that fits the investment criteria. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
