Mr. Chairman, I noticed we have at least three school boilers being replaced at a cost of $2 million. There’s some energy efficiency in there that’s going to save, hopefully, fuel and greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our operational costs. I’m wondering whether or not
we’ve looked at pellet boilers, given that we’ve got some examples of great savings.
I’d like to point out, in the most recent example, Sir John Franklin High School, right here in Yellowknife, in the most recent contract, they were paying $1.07 a litre. They are now purchasing heat or will shortly be purchasing heat at $0.80 a litre, without any capital costs for that pellet boiler. That is none.
We’re spending $2 million here. I see huge opportunities to pay no dollars on capital. Simply purchase heat at reduced cost and essentially zero emissions. This is the sort of thinking I’m hoping to see here. Once these systems are in place and we’ve spent $2 million on them, we’re stuck with them. Can I be assured that this has happened or that we’ll take full advantage of the window of time left to see if we can’t replace those high-efficiency but conventionally-fuelled boilers with pellet boilers that will eventually, undoubtedly, be fuelled with local biomass providing considerable local employment.