Mr. Speaker, today I'm following up with my statement from yesterday by delving deeper into opportunities for biomass district heating systems in the territory. So this is a good example of where the barrier to reducing emissions is not necessarily money. We can do more with existing resources by getting our policies and regulatory systems in order and better coordinating with partners.
While we often focus on community electricity projects, in fact heating our building with oil has a much greater overall impact on our emissions in the NWT than electricity does. And it's up to 10 times cheaper to switch our heating systems than our electricity systems.
Now, the GNWT has made good progress on switching over some of its own buildings to biomass in lots of communities and, notably here in Yellowknife, the jail, the Stanton Hospital has biomass boilers, and by the way the new boiler in the Legacy Stanton Building is saving $1,500 per day in heating costs.
Where we are stalling on progress is getting organized with district heating projects. So that's where one big boiler pipes heat to all the large buildings nearby. If we look at downtown Yellowknife, most of those big buildings still use heating oil, and there's not enough room to put a separate boiler beside each of those buildings. So recently there was a technical feasibility study completed for a downtown Yellowknife district biomass heating project, and that was done by Alternatives North in partnership with the city of Yellowknife and Arctic Energy Alliance. The study found that there is a business case for either a private company to build and run the system or even a stronger case for a nonprofit enterprise with access to federal grant funding to build and run the system, and there would be even estimated 20 percent return on investment. The barriers, though, are partly regulatory. So figuring out if this would count as a utility and, if so, how the Public Utilities Board would manage it, and also how to get all of the downtown business owners to the table and agree on how this could work. So the GNWT can help drive projects like this by committing to be an anchor customer.
Member from Yellowknife North, your time is up.
Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I was just saying that in this case, it's the carbon tax that makes the alternative feasible economically.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
