Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my statement today is about energy security. The crisis in Norman Wells has drawn our attention to how climate change makes our fuel resupply vulnerable with the low water levels, but it also should draw our attention to how vulnerable a community is when it has no competitive market for petroleum products. Norman Wells is dependent mainly on one private fuel supplier which essentially holds a monopoly and therefore can raise prices whenever it feels it needs to with no regulator to oversee how much price increase is actually needed.
Now, our NWT energy strategy highlights energy security as a core pillar but we've been focusing primarily on electricity and missing key vulnerabilities elsewhere, like in supply chains for heating fuels and transportation fuels.
Many people assume that energy security means we have to produce 100 percent of our energy locally. Now this is a noble dream, and we should absolutely put in more solar panels and windmills and even gas wells where those are cost effective, but for all 33 communities to produce 100 percent local energy would require just astronomical resources, and we might as well start a goal of starting our own space program. So we need to get more practical and realistic about energy security. So that would involve, first and foremost, ensuring redundancy and backup plans, whether that's modern, efficient backup generators in power grids or having a backup plan for ensuring resupply of transport and heating fuels.
Second, the GNWT can do more to secure supply chains for all imported energy sources. Thankfully, the GNWT fuel services division was planning ahead to ensure all other Sahtu communities got their fuel trucked in over last year's winter road. Communities have been calling on the GNWT to similarly help secure supply chains for wood pellets. There's also an opportunity to help secure renewable diesel supply chains which will be a critical step in moving towards a net-zero climate target. Often overlooked, but critical to energy security, is the need for energy efficiency and conservation wherever possible. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement, which is one more sentence. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, finally, we need to ensure communities feel more sense of control over their energy systems and make sure there are trained local people available to maintain them and troubleshoot when things go wrong because all the biomass boilers and windmills in the world won't do any good if they sit broken and unused. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Frame Lake.
