Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It still sounds like a yes to me. But that's all right, we'll have that discussion later.

This also contains the energy programs for -- sorry, yeah, the energy programs that are funded. Can the Minister speak to the overall energy strategy and where the -- how the GNWT is moving ahead with its energy plans, especially in the advent of mine closure? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am happy to do this although I'm conscious that we are trying to be a bit more mindful of our time. The energy strategy is up for a renewal, and last summer some significant progress was made in terms of having, for example, a large forum of engagement and significant other opportunities for engagement over the summer of last year obviously with some challenges. There's work being done right now to draft up what that might look like. I know Members of the Assembly have had a significant amount of interest in this particular area. I think we are expecting to be ready to go on this roughly in 2025-2026 -- well, certainly the fiscal year of 2025-2026. But, again, I expect that there's a lot of interest. I expect we'll be coming back to committee before anything is finalized.

I mean, in broad terms, the energy situation in the Northwest Territories is one where we have over 20 disconnected micro grids. We are heavily reliant on diesel still, certainly for all redundancy. We have some hydro communities. We have independent hydro grids. So this is a space where there is an opportunity for much. An opportunity -- lots of opportunity, let's put it that way. But without taking some pretty significant actions, we would be in a difficult situation going forward. We'll be in the same situation in the next 25 years as we have been for the last 25 if we don't make some significant changes. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Will the Northwest Territories be in the -- be net-zero by 2050 and meet the Canadian net-zero goal -- or targets? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that's exactly the kind of question that does need to be answered in this strategy, and it is one that I hope there's a lot of significant public interest in. I appreciate that there's political interest in it. Because that will be -- if we decide to move the needle on what the goals are and make them bigger and bolder, it means significant investment in energy infrastructure to achieve them, and it means being on top of new technologies and emerging technologies. So, for example, this afternoon speaking about renewable diesel but up to and including what storage capacity for LNG might be like including what kinds of new capacity there may be. I think, Madam Chair, in your own community, they're doing some work to see whether or not there could be kinetic storage energy. We have to be at the front of the technology. We have to acknowledge that that technology comes with costs. It's probably going to cost more over the course of my children's lifetime if we don't do anything, but where do we go next? Again, that's exactly the kind of question that has to be in this strategy. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you. The community government retrofit program is being discontinued. Can the Minister explain why? Thank you.

Minister of Infrastructure.

Madam Chair, let me put that to the deputy minister, please.

Deputy minister Loutitt.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Range Lake.

Yes, thank you. I would encourage the Minister to do that. The association of communities is quite keen to see this funding, or something like it, restored and provided to them and is concerned about this cut. So if it is being offset by other sources, best to communicate that to them without delay.

So the issue seems to be with the low carbon leadership economy fund. That's what's been in the headlines at least, and what's been communicated to us. The other smaller cuts, electric bicycle rebates, electric on the land vehicle rebates, electric vehicles fast charger corridor, electric vehicles rebate program, and youth energy mentorship, and energy auditing capacity, why are these funds being cut? Or are they being sunset? Can the Minister explain if it's related to those low carbon leadership issues or is this another source of funding we're losing? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there are a significant amount of sunsets that are taking place, and that is where the cuts are coming from.

There has been some funding, $433,000 in funding, for new initiatives. So it just reduces the scope of what can -- what is possible under the Energy Action Plan right now. Obviously subject to perhaps seeing a renewal, hopefully seeing a renewal of the low carbon -- or the LCELF funding that the Member was mentioning but, yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Range Lake.

Does the Minister believe that we have sufficient resources behind EV charging stations and associated infrastructure to support the transition away from fossil fuel powered -- from combustion engines -- or standard combustion engines? We're making this transition nationally, globally. Is the Northwest Territories in a position to keep pace, or will we be left behind and have no cars to drive? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, given the uptake to date on EV vehicles, we do believe that we are in a position to have sufficient amount of charging stations. So there's charging stations in -- and I'll double check the year here; I'm sure someone's going to send it to me as I say this. But there will be sufficient charging stations to create a corridor from here to the border. And so, again, in terms of ruling out that by -- in 2024, a fiscal year of 2024. So with that, that provides that ability for hopefully more people to then begin to buy the vehicles, EV vehicles, since that does appear to have been a barrier to this time. As more people will buy it, it certainly helps to support the idea of a further investment in those charging stations. So, again, we hope we're going to get to a place where the corridor, as I said, will go as far as the border. You know, for anyone that's going to ask the next question, we're going to have to burn diesel to have a charging station but if that ultimately gets more vehicles off the road, then the net benefit is greater and, again, as I say, as we move forward with this, if there's greater uptake of the EV vehicles because of those charging stations has -- continues to have greater benefits and to put us on that path of being not in a situation of not having cars. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, perhaps we could burn reusable diesel -- renewable diesel, or other forms of bio diesel. There are so many options out there right now. Okay, that's good.

I'm concerned, though, that there are still some issues with, like, our local power grid. I know my colleague, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, has brought this up but Naka, the newly rechristened Naka utilities has -- basically tells consumers they have to pay for their own infrastructure when they want to have high capacity or high -- fast charging for EVs in their garages, things like that. Our power system's not attuned for that. So how are we -- I don't think that's fair. I don't think anyone thinks that's fair. So how are we assisting consumers to get those tools and those utilities into their homes, so they are not left footing the bill for their entire neighbourhoods? Thank you.