Mr. Speaker, the Northwest Territories relies heavily on imported fossil fuels to meet our energy needs. Community resupply last year cost us about $22 million. Were we to include oil and gas for O and M, we would be over $50 million per year. In addition, our economy loses when we send this money south and then environmental, social and more financial costs accrue when we add to rather than reduce greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

Mr. Speaker, peak oil is the point and time where we have used half of the world’s oil supply, the cheapest path by far. At the peak, the cost of fuel will rise dramatically. Optimistic estimates indicate peak oil will occur by 2017. Pessimistic views say it has already happened. Many middle of the road estimates figure peak oil is happening now. Back when world consumption was five billion barrels a year, we discovered reserves of 30 billion per year. Now we consume over 30 billion barrels a year and discover only about five billion. We have not made a giant discovery of oil for over a decade. Fairly, we need to reduce NWT reliance on fossil fuels. The current recession broke our ever-increasing demand for oil and the cost per barrel has plummeted. However, Mr. Speaker, Mark Carney of the Bank of Canada predicted our economy will be roaring in 2010, a year from now. Others believe the recession will last two or three years. This leaves us only one or two years of cheap oil before we can expect high and erratic oil prices once again. Many say we have not seen anything yet on what can happen to the price of oil, but surely we have seen enough.

Mr. Speaker, there is much in the budget before us on energy initiatives. I applaud these efforts. My intent today is to underscore the opportunity we have during possibly the last period of cheap oil and to ensure awareness that this window may be quite brief. We use oil for heating, power, importing food and supplies for infrastructure, roads, air travel and maintenance. This dependence on oil makes us highly vulnerable. We need to radically decrease this dependency. I urge our Cabinet and all community leaders and all residents of the NWT to be aware of this and act now to change how we do business. All plans on economic stimulus and infrastructure spending must include a strong element of energy conservation, fossil fuel reduction or replace them with renewable energy.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I request that this Cabinet immediately adopt a policy that commits the NWT using only low carbon fuels as the U.S. Energy Committee Chair Henry Waxman wants to see in the U.S. Given that we are downstream from the damaging high carbon fuel development in the tar sands, there are clearly additional northern benefits to such a policy. Mahsi.