Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witness into the Chamber.

Minister, please introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today is Dr. Erin Kelly, deputy minister of environment and climate change. On my right, Julian Kanigan, assistant deputy minister of environment management monitoring and climate change. On my left, and behind me, is Laura Jeffrey, legislation counsel. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. I'll now turn to the chair of the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment, the committee that reviewed the bill, for any opening comments on Bill 78. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 78, Waste Reduction and Resource Recovery Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 29th, 2023, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment for review. Bill 78 is intended to enable programs that support the goals of preventing waste at the source, diverting waste from disposal, and improving waste disposal practices.

In the committee's review period, the committee heard from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and his staff on June 1st, 2023. The committee was able to have a thorough discussion with the Minister and officials about concerns regarding the Minister's authorities when it comes to waste reduction and resource recovery. The committee negotiated language for five motions to amend Bill 78 with the government.

On July 5th, 2023, the committee held its clause-by-clause review where five amendments were concurred with by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

I would like to thank the committee for its hard work on the review of Bill 78. Individual Members of my committee might have comments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 78. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So despite the previous discussion, I support this bill. I support it as well. I did serve as the chair of the waste reduction and recovery advisory committee for 11 years. The staff do great work on this area within the department, and that's why we have beverage container deposits now is because of the work that the department and the committee did. And it's now, of course, been extended to electronics recycling and I understand some other waste streams are being considered, which is all good stuff. And this does create jobs in local communities because they have depots. The regional centres have some processing centres as well. You know, this is good -- good things all around.

I do want to ask, though, I've had concerns to me raised about the need for a second depot in Yellowknife. And is there anything in this bill that's going to make setting up these depots easier in the future? I'll start with that. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's going to be a little bit of a longwinded answer, and I apologize for that.

The Department of Environment and Climate Change has conducted research on the different technologies to provide further services in the downtown core. Yellowknife does not have enough population and beverage containers to make two additional -- or two traditional deposit locations feasible. ECC looked at reverse vending machines as a potential solution but our research has shown that we would not be a good fit for the NWT beverage container program. While reverse vending machines have worked in some other jurisdictions programs, their limits include limited type of containers accepted, limited size of containers accepted criteria, containers conditions requirements, small number of containers that can be processed less than 40 per minute, and they can -- and they need to be fed one at a time, the need for large retail space and staff time to empty the process bins.

ECC is exploring options for a pilot unstaffed drop and go deposit downtown that will provide a second recycling option in Yellowknife.

We've heard standing committee during the review -- public review of Bill 78 in July 2023 and are working on addressing gaps that may impact vulnerable people. This includes potential partnering with a local organization in the downtown core to provide accountable payouts without needing to go to the current Yellowknife depot on Old Airport Road. This would still come with a drop and go limitation of five business days needed for the contractor to retrieve the containers, count them, and credit the account. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I think the Minister might have got ahead of himself a little bit. What in this bill is going to improve the chances or the ability of the department to open up a second depot in Yellowknife? Thanks.

Thank you. Minister.

For that detail, I'll turn to the deputy minister. I can get back on the schedule here.

Thank you. Dr. Kelly.

Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, okay, thanks. I'm just going to tell one short story.

I had an opportunity to go on holiday into Nuuk, Greenland. It's a community of about 15,000 people. They have machines there. You push a pop bottle into it and cash comes out. They can do it in Nuuk, Greenland. You think we can be able to do it here. I know, yeah, we got harsh climate. So do those guys. So I'm glad the department's doing some work on this. And I've had lots of complaints. I know that the depot that is operating does its best to try to serve people. But they just can't keep staff. I don't know what's going on there. After the evacuation, the line-ups were unbelievable. I had to go back five times before I could even get into a line-up where I thought I'd have any chance of actually getting my stuff in and processed or cashed, whatever. So anyways, we need a second depot in Yellowknife. Technology's out there. I just want you guys to go and get it done. And if there's ways of supporting the existing operations so that they can better serve Yellowknifers, let's get that done too. Thanks. That's all I have to say. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And first of all, I just want to say I appreciate there's a lot of nuances to this bill, and there's been a lot of things that are needed and a long time coming, but I am going to belabour a little bit of a point on the bottle depot as well with my colleague. And I do recognize that it is not the sole intent of what we are here today to do.

But that being said, the entire reason to create a second bottle depot in the downtown area was to serve the vulnerable population that is using this as a source of income. And so for it to have a five-day delay -- and, really, the reason we've been told in the past was due to security and such. I just can't find that to be an acceptable answer. I second what my colleague said about looking for more of an automated way now that we're passed pandemics and evacuations and are finding staffing to be an issue for a lot of lower paying jobs in the city and territory. I'm excited that this potentially could go to other communities besides Yellowknife. But I just don't see how we could put in a second depot without having them be able to pay cash out. It just then makes things easier for someone like myself, and it's kind of defeating or not really hitting the purpose, which was to create a space downtown where people could get this money quickly.

I understand, yeah, the department's reasons for that. But, anyway, I just wanted to throw my support behind trying to find out some other solution to this besides what is being currently proposed.

That being said, I'm very happy to hear that we're moving towards more of a streamlined and sustainable waste industry sector, however you want to call it. I don't really have a lot of questions about this, other than I support this bill and just hope that maybe we could be innovative and creative here and come up with something different so that people aren't trekking across town to get $5 and change. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Are there any other general comments on Bill 78? Is committee agreed that there are no further general comments; we can proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill?

Can we proceed to a clause by clause review of the bill?

Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. We will consider the clauses in groups. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.

Clauses 1 through 10, does committee agree?

Committee, to the bill as a whole, does committee agree that Bill 78, Waste Reduction and Resource Recovery Act, is now ready for third reading?