Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, this is the area for Arctic Energy Alliance. It was part of the priority to give them more funding. I am going to pass it over to Dr. Dragon for the more detailed explanation. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I see that the clock is ticking down, so I am just going to make a couple of comments here. Look, Arctic Energy Alliance, I think they do good work. Personally, we have accessed them a couple of times for energy efficiency work on our own home. Part of the difficulty is the programs that they offer, you have to have the money to be able to invest to do the upgrades, and it's often expensive work. They need to find ways to broaden their programs for people who don't have the cash up front and make the programs more accessible. That is a suggestion.

The other thing that I continue to hear complaints about in Yellowknife, and I understand why they did this, is they don't support solar projects in Yellowknife anymore, because there is some concern about Yellowknife already being a hydro-based community. Why would we give people money to take themselves off the grid when hydro provides the power here? I know that that's a low carbon economy fund issue, as well, but I understood that they were going to try to find some other ways to support solar. It's also tied up with the bigger issue with getting rid of big grids, period, in the Northwest Territories and building energy self-sufficiency in individuals' homes, but all of that to say, Madam Chair, I guess I would like to get the Minister to -- SCEDE can do this on its own, but we need to have Arctic Energy Alliance come in and talk to us about the programs that they offer, especially with this injection of new money, and how they're looking at redesigning that and making their programs more accessible. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. I'll take that as comments, and I will go on to the next person. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess there was, I think, some discussion on fuel and fuel prices. I am just wondering, with transporting fuel, how do we arrive at a price for that? Is it based on some real numbers, or is it based on what MTS requires to break even? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would hope that everything in my department does is based on real numbers. I hope he doesn't mind, but I will let Dr. Dragon answer this one, too. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure where you're buying the fuel from, where we're buying it from, if it's a rack price in Edmonton or where it is. Have you looked at, I guess, the rack price in Edmonton versus rack price say, in Vancouver, and rack price somewhere else overseas, and coming up through the North? I'm not sure what the rack price is. You might be able to give us a number. It doesn't have to be a solid number, just maybe a range of what we are paying for rack price and where. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Dr. Dragon.

Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Do you have an example of a rack price in Edmonton? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister? Dr. Dragon.

Thank you, Dr. Dragon. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess in the news in the past, we saw negative oil prices. Has that affected the price that the GNWT has been paying for fuel or gas? Because that's a question that constituents ask: why is the price at negative whatever, and we're still paying $1.00, $1.20 a litre, and in Edmonton, they're paying 50 cents a litre? I'm just wondering, and I understand that we're buying bulk and we have to kind of have it ahead of time to get it on the barges and move it north. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct. We have bought it at an earlier time and, therefore, we turn around and we sell it back. At the time when we're selling it, we sell it for what we purchased it for. We don't make any profit off the fuel sales. Unfortunately, there is a lag where, if we had bought the fuel and shipped it up the previous year, it's still being sold at that same price. We did have some conversation about whether or not we could equalize and look at reducing the prices now. There needs to be a more fulsome conversation, but the gist of that is: can we burden the future consumer with that extra price? So it's a bit more complicated than that. The short and basic of it is, we bought it at that price last year, and that's what we're selling it for now. Thank you, Madam Chair.