Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to ask some questions about energy which could be directed to the Minister of Infrastructure; however, I had such a great time with Minister Thompson on our trip that I'm going to ask ENR about these questions.
So my questions for Minister Thompson are, is what new innovation discussed at COP26 does the Department of ENR feel can best help the North to make a transition to clean energy? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I have to say the Member from Great Slave did a great job representing SCEDE and the Northwest Territories at the conference. She was able to meet with a number of people that I didn't get to meet with, so kudos to her.
One of the interesting new innovations discussed at COP was green -- or green hydrogen. Green hydrogen came from a renewable -- or power resources. These power sources would include wind, solar, hydro, or geothermal. Green hydro products produce no carbon dioxide. Currently, around 5 percent of the world's hydrogen is produced in this way. This new technology is a significant part of Greenland's climate change plan which shows opportunity in the North. And I've had the opportunity to meet Minister Lund and have that conversation with him.
I understand that the Department of Infrastructure are hosting to participation -- or practitioners workshop in 2022 at the hydrogen -- on hydrogen and its feasibility in the North. We are looking forward to discussions, this further with Infrastructure and the climate change council moving on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister for his kind words. It was a great conference, and I was really excited to hear about the green hydrogen as well.
Can the Minister speak to whether he or any of his colleagues have plans for there to be -- to introduce incentives for industry in order to encourage them to reduce their carbon footprint by changing out their operations. For example, taxi companies moving towards electric cars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently, the GNWT has a greenhouse gas grant fund for buildings, an industry that provides up to 25 percent grants to industry for greenhouse gas reduction projects. This fund is approximately 8 million until 2024. This could include support for retrofits of vehicles to make them less greenhouse grass initiatives.
Under the carbon tax system, industry not only pays an increased tax on fossil fuel use, but part of the carbon tax revenue goes into admittance special funds that can be used to support greenhouse gas reduction projects. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that answer and hope that there will be some newer innovations, sort of incentives, to come.
What is the Minister -- in the Minister's opinion and the department's opinion are the biggest barriers to the Taltson hydro expansion project from an ENR perspective? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is working with our partners to address barriers to the project itself. We, as ENR, are very confident that the environmental concerns related to this project will be addressed for the NWT's robust regulatory process. So right now, we're confident in the process that we're moving forward and we'll be able to complete this project besides the money that we need from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That was a great segue to my next question which was in the Minister's opinion, was the GNWT successful in making headway to getting additional funding from the federal government towards transitioning the NWT off of fossil fuels? I know there was a lot of conversations happening, but could the Minister share whether or not he felt they were successful. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I did have the opportunity to talk to Minister Guilbeault about the adaptation program that's going to be happening, and it's going to be done in 2022. So we had that opportunity to talk about there is money available that they're going to be talking about and how it's going to be impacting.
I also had the opportunity to meet with the Minister from Ontario, and we talked about this exact same issue. And, again, we stressed them to the fact is it can't be population based, it has to be needs based plus. And so we've had that conversation.
So the GNWT is currently eligible for 254 million until 2020 in federal funding under the Investment in Canada Infrastructure program to fund a total of 338 million in infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as keeping our system reliable and affordable.
The GNWT also received 31.2 million until 2024 under the federal low carbon economy fund to address greenhouse gas emissions mostly in buildings and industry.
I was able to meet, like I said, with the federal Minister, and I've also said previously Minister Archie has been able to meet with Minister Wilkinson as well and talk about future funding opportunities.
What we need is funding that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of the North with more flexibility and lower NWT contribution percentages. We continue to lobby the federal government in this regard. And I do have a meeting with the federal minister and my provincial colleagues and territorial colleagues in December to talk about this very topic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
