Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements.

Colleagues, I would like to take this time to talk about the Canadian Biomass and their awards.

On April 19th, 2024 they announce this year's winners. Their awards program celebrates outstanding individuals, companies, and communities working passionately to advance the country's bioeconomy. Inaugural winners will be celebrated in the spring 2024 issue of Canadian Biomass. Awards will be given out in the following categories:

• Champion of the Year, individual award
• Company of the Year, company award
• Thought Leader of the Year, individual award
• Community Project of the Year, community award
• Lifetime Achievement, individual award.

I would like to focus on the Community Project of the Year winner today. The award is given to an outstanding community biomass project in Canada, brought online within the last three years. The award recognizes the community and its stakeholders who worked to bring a project to fruition. It is open to bioheat, biofuels, and bioproducts projects from municipal and Indigenous communities as well as community groups and associations.

This year's winner was the village of Fort Simpson. They made a commitment to heat all municipal buildings with wood pellet heating and this year they underwent two biomass projects:

• A new wood pellet boiler in the water treatment plant; and
• Connecting the community pool and gym to an existing biomass-fueled district heating system.

In speaking with the mayor, he talked about the two biomass projects done last year and will be looking at doing more municipal buildings in the future. They are working closely with the Arctic Energy Alliance regional office in Fort Simpson who helped the village with professional advice and financial assistance.

The village dug a steam line from our community hall to the swimming pool fitness centre and have been tied into the main steam plant which normally runs on wood pellets. As well, they are just finishing off putting a wood pellet system into the water treatment plant with a big hopper for wood pellet supply. Both projects came up to be around $250,000 and they will be a major cost saving moving forward. The village is very proud and excited to be using renewable energy in place of carbon fuel and reducing CO2 emissions.

I would like to congratulate the village on winning the award and for helping to reduce the CO2 emissions. Thank you.

Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Member from the Sahtu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On June 6th, the community of Tulita celebrates heroic efforts lead by Mr. Rocky Norwegian, and other community members, in the evacuation of the whole community and building a firebreak during the 1995 wildfires that saw an aggressive movement within one kilometer of the community. Because of their fast action, it saved the community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, member from the Sahtu. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've been hearing from our local cannabis grower and producer that they are having difficulty kind of gaining a foothold in the industry knowing that they're operating in the North. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister describe -- the Minister of Finance specifically, describe the policy used for supporting our local producers? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a policy in place from the financial management board that supports having our local producers receive a discount on the markup. So the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission places a markup on all cannabis products that come for sale in the North. For our cannabis producers here locally, any cannabis producers here locally, they get a 10 percentage point discount, which equates in real numbers to being almost a 30 percent discount on that markup. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister commit to reviewing this policy and considering changes to ensure that our fledgling industry is given its best chance to grow and create more private sector employment in our community? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity to tour the facility here and meet with the producers, and I've heard from them that they certainly would, sounds like, prefer to see a discount on the retail end price as opposed to on the markup price. Mr. Speaker, we've certainly had that conversation many times. No doubt it would -- I can't say whether it would make a difference for them. You know, at this point I'd need to know what their numbers are. I can commit to reviewing the policy again. We've done that in the past. We've done that in response to this industry, prepared to review it again. As I've said, I can't commit to what it would look like. It's a financial management board approved policy, but I'm happy to commit that we will review it one more time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister commit to, yet again, meeting with our local producer to discuss these potential changes so we can ensure their perspective is heard as the department is reviewing it, the policy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly happy to do that. As I've said, I understand they've looked at having a retail end point. Our perspective has been to put at the markup, which is really the end that we control. So to ensure that we all move forward on a policy that makes sense to everyone, if we're going to do this review, I'd be happy to meet with them and make sure that we're all speaking the same language. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that further commitment. Mr. Speaker, finally, can the Minister give a timeline for when we can expect all of this to occur? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Subject, obviously, to finding an opportunity to meet with these producers, what I could say is we can have a review in front of the financial management board this summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister of ECC explain how the GNWT is diverting as much plastic from NWT landfills as possible under the current regime? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of ECC.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. The GNWT currently has three waste diversion programs. The single use retail bag program, which was the first of its kind at the provincial/territorial level in Canada. Since the program's inception in 2010, it's estimated that we've prevented more than 84 million bags, or 422.1 tonnes, from being used and discarded. We also have the beverage container program, which on average diverts 141 tonnes of plastic waste each year. And plastic components of electronics and electrical items are returned through our electronic recycling program, and the e-pilot are also recycled. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And recognizing that this is a little bit of an overlap to MACA's jurisdiction, I hope the Minister can answer this. What is the GNWT doing to support municipalities on waste reduction and diversion? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT is committed to creating three to five new expanded regulated programs by 2030 as part of the waste reduction management strategy and implementation plan. To date, ECC has identified used oil, tires, and expanded suite of electronics and electrical items. These materials were chosen primarily because they're already segregated in landfills and have been identified for their environmental risk. Work to create regulations to enable the recycling of these materials to update existing regulations is underway and will be undertaken in the next several years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I guess more specifically to my statement earlier today, what is the GNWT doing to fully support Canada's zero waste plastic agenda? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the national level, the GNWT endorses the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment's strategy on zero plastic waste, which aims to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of plastic waste. Canada has also played a key role in moving toward the development and adaptation of a United Nations plastics treaty, which this work is expected to wrap up at an international level in 2025. Once the UN plastics treaty is ratified, we anticipate that any outcomes and commitments will be incorporated into the future work of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment of which the GNWT is an active member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of ECC. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.