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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Michael Miltenberger, the NWT's minister of environment and finance, is skeptical about the ability of next week's United Nations climate change conference to make a difference.

The territorial government is sending two delegates to Durban, South Africa, for next week's talks but "Copenhagen reinforced the fact that the world is not in a position yet to come to a consensus at the international level," said Miltenberger, citing "huge competing agendas" and "enormous politics."

In 2009, the GNWT sent five MLAs and two government employees to the Copenhagen climate talks at a cost of $55,000. Last year no MLAs went, and Ray Case - the only NWT bureaucrat to attend - went on the federal government's dime. Miltenberger, who attended Copenhagen, was so disillusioned by its outcome he only sent Case to Cancun, Mexico, in 2010 and it seems that conference did little to raise his expectations.

Miltenberger said that it is up to provincial and territorial governments to lead the way in combating climate change, given the federal government's reluctance to adopt a national strategy.

"The federal government has said very clearly time and time again that they will not lead on this one. That they will follow. They will follow the United States, which itself is in a state of gridlock on this issue given the political makeup of the United States at this particular juncture," said Miltenberger. Programs already in place in the GNWT will continued in the 17th assembly. A $60-million alternative energy program implemented by the 16th assembly made "significant investments" in various forms of alternative energy, including biomass, solar, wind, geothermal and hydro, Miltenberger said, referring to a wind energy project in Tuktoyaktuk, a geothermal project in Fort Liard and rebate and subsidy programs put in place to assist Northerners in living more sustainably, either by heating their homes with wood pellet stoves or buying boats with more efficient engines.

"We are doing a significant amount to control our energy costs and our greenhouse gas emissions and our carbon footprint and we're going to continue to do

that," Miltenberger said.

One option still on the table is the introduction of a carbon tax to encourage NWT residents and businesses to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and mitigate emissions-related climate change.

The GNWT has done a considerable amount of work on the carbon-tax issue but Miltenberger would not say whether the territorial government would move forward with a tax. There is concern that even a revenue-neutral carbon tax could disproportionately affect lower-income residents, especially those in higher-cost communities. The idea of instituting a carbon tax will be the subject of continued discussion but residents will have to wait for Miltenberger's budget address in February, to find out how the government will proceed.

In the meantime, GNWT initiatives already in place have attracted the attention of the federal government, which is now in talks with the GNWT to provide additional funding, said Miltenberger. He acknowledged that there is a struggle for limited resources in a time of national deficit reduction. Still, the provinces and territories cannot shoulder the entire burden, even with the financial backing of the federal government. "At some point the national level has to kick in," said Miltenberger. "We need a national water strategy, we need a national energy strategy, we need a whole host of things to happen at the national level that are not there yet."

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