Thank you, committee, for meeting with the Government of the Northwest Territories this afternoon.
We are here for some business meetings with the Prime Minister, ministers, and a number of standing committees about some of the challenges and opportunities facing the people of the Northwest Territories today. We're very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.
Before we get to the presentation, I would like to take a few minutes to talk about our territory. I was pleased to hear that some of you had been up to the Northwest Territories and visited us.
In the Northwest Territories, 44,000 residents live in 33 communities that stretch from the southern border with the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta to Banks Island in the Arctic Ocean. Our biggest community is Yellowknife, with approximately 21,000 people, while our smallest community is Kakisa, with fewer than 50. Twenty-seven of our communities have fewer than 1,000 people, and 16 of these have fewer than 500.
Only 12 of the Northwest Territories' 33 communities have year-round road access to southern Canada, and four of them can only be reached by air or water. Although the Northwest Territories has substantial hydroelectricity potential, only eight Northwest Territories communities are powered by hydro. The remaining 25 are powered by stand-alone diesel generators.
Lack of transportation and energy options drives up the cost of living for Northwest Territories residents far beyond what our fellow Canadians face. In 2015, for example, residents of Ulukhaktok paid $8.25 for a 540-millilitre tin of tomatoes, and residents of Fort McPherson paid $7.85 for a single litre of milk.
People in Fort Smith, a community of 2,500 people near the Taltson hydro facility, pay 16¢ a kilowatt-hour for electricity. Most of the territory pays much more. In Yellowknife, home to half the Northwest Territories population, we pay 30¢ per kilowatt-hour, while the cost in diesel communities is 65¢ a kilowatt-hour—compare that to on-peak rates of 18¢ per kilowatt-hour here in Ottawa.
At the same time, the Northwest Territories is experiencing the effects of climate change at a faster pace than southern Canada. In Inuvik, the average annual temperature has already risen by 4°C since the 1950s, while in the southern part of the Northwest Territories, we are already experiencing annual temperature increases of 2°C.
Climate change is resulting in coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, landslides, increased snow loads on buildings, and drought. Shorter winter road and marine operating seasons as a result of warmer temperatures result in incomplete or more costly community resupplies. Building techniques have had to adapt, resulting in more complicated and costly public infrastructure projects. At the same time, transportation of people and goods is being disrupted, as permafrost degradation contributes to uneven roads and runways.
One thing about northerners though is that we have always had to rely on our own ingenuity. With limited access to outside resources and supplies for much of its history, the people of the Northwest Territories have always had to be creative with their solutions. We continue to use that creativity and innovation to address modern problems and lead the way in applying new techniques and technology for cold-weather building construction, road construction, and renewable power solutions.
We are second in Canada in installed solar photovoltaic capacity per capita and a national leader in wood pellet use. Projects like the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line and the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway demonstrate our forward thinking.
We think the lessons that we have learned in the Northwest Territories can be applied to southern Canada as well, particularly in transition to a green economy.
We are here to today to talk to you about three priority projects where we believe there's substantial opportunity for the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government Canada to work together to bring about transformative change in the north and to achieve national goals with respect to climate change.
Mr. Chair, I would now like to turn you over to Minister Wally Schumann, who will speak about these opportunities in greater detail.