Mr. Speaker, at the end of March, I attended the Renewables in Remote Communities conference in Whitehorse, and today I'd like to share a few of my takeaways, especially around promising renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives being led by northern and remote communities. One thing that may be of interest is that Arctic Energy Alliance has produced some brand-new mini books and flashcards with words and terms related to energy that are translated into several Indigenous languages. Hopefully, we can get those books to our interpreters here at the ledge.
It became clear that out of all of the territories and provinces represented at the conference, the NWT is the furthest behind in that we are the last ones to come up with the policy on independent power producers, which communities have been asking for a long time. This is important because many Indigenous development corporations and communities would like to own the assets to be able to produce their own renewable energy and then sell that power to the power corporation or the GNWT. Another policy change that's long overdue is increasing the current cap of 20 percent on intermittent renewable generation. What I've learned, though, is how communities such as Inuvik have been getting around this restrictive cap by helping to stabilize their system with more battery energy storage. Inuvik is the territory's biggest non-hydro community, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn it has well over 150 percent penetration with renewable technologies, such as solar and wind.
I also heard loud and clear that for these community-led renewable energy projects to be sustainable, we need more federal funding to support operations, not just capital, and the GNWT needs to fund more training for community members to install and maintain and repair the energy technologies because it doesn't do any good to invest money in shiny new technology that sits there broken or unused.
I met with the Gwich'in company Dinjii Zhuh Solutions which is aiming to set a new standard for sustainable housing and reduce home heating costs. They've already completed energy audits on 36 homes and retrofits on five homes in Fort McPherson, and they're looking to scale up to retrofit 120 homes over five years. They're looking to overcome challenges in getting contractors and materials by establishing local training programs and a centralized material hub. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thanks to my colleagues. Mr. Speaker, the NWT has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to renewable energy, but we have no shortage of passion and energy in our communities to drive it forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.
