Thank you for everyone's patience and to Mr. Speaker. So my questions are for the infrastructure Minister. Has the Minister looked into what the Yukon is doing in terms of piloting renewable diesel and considered possibilities of working together with the Yukon to get a pilot project off the ground here in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, I have actually reached out myself to my counterpart in the Yukon, Mr. Streicker. We had a brief exchange on what efforts they might be engaged in with respect to renewable diesel. They so far have run into similar challenges as we have here in the Northwest Territories, which is, for one, not being able to find Arctic grade to do a pilot on or when we find it, for a small volume, it is extremely expensive. That said, obviously, Mr. Speaker, if we can band larger numbers together, it would be easier, and so Minister Streicker and I, I expect, will speak again about this at EMMC, which is the Energy Mine Ministers of Canada Conference later this summer. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Has the Department of Infrastructure been in touch with potential suppliers, such as the new Tidewater Refinery in Prince George, or Imperial Oil which is starting their refinery in Strathcona, to better understand current supply and pricing for different grades but also to explain the potential in the NWT in terms of our market and our needs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been outreach to a number of different suppliers. There was an effort, in fact, to run a pilot as I alluded to in my last response. But in terms of exactly which suppliers they've reached out to, I don't have a list in front of me. I can say again, though, that the challenge was, firstly, not even being able to find any supplier. If there are new supplies available, we can certainly go back, make sure that we do have the latest information. I'm happy to commit to do that and to report back. Again, I know I have followed up with the department actually quite recently and the challenges were still the same, which is what I heard from the Yukon. If there's new options, again, I'll commit to make sure that we are up to speed on the latest availability. Thank you.
Okay, and thanks for that. I mean, recognizing some of the challenges, has the Minister had any conversations with the federal government regarding both the potential to fund renewable diesel projects or ways to incentivize the production of Arctic grade renewable diesel? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly have not had those kinds of conversations with the federal government, Mr. Speaker, nor do I nor can I say, really, how receptive they would be. The direction that we seem to be getting of late on areas when we do try to push the federal government for some awareness of the continued need for diesel in the Northwest Territories, in the North in general, tends to not be one that is received very favourably. So certainly can look at an opportunity to bring that forward, noting the realities of the North and noting the fact that some form of diesel is still going to be around here for quite a long time in terms of our redundancy if nothing else. So thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So has the department had discussions with De Beers or other mining companies about the potential for renewable diesel pilot projects in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier, as was mentioned earlier in this government, the Member actually had put us in a room together with a number of folks who are in this space, and it came up that De Beers was looking at this, so we have the department has reached back out to them. I understand that while that may have fallen off the radar for De Beers, there's been some further conversations now with some of their folks. So as I said earlier, if there's a larger coalition able to look for Arctic grade not just winter grade and definitely not summer grade, but Arctic grade it may be that we can, A, find some and, B, find some at a better price. So we will continue those conversations with De Beers, possibly other large mines. I'll certainly commit to reporting back to the Member on that once we had a sense of whether the situation on this area has changed or not. Hopefully it has. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
