1. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada –
Supporting clean energy and reducing reliance on diesel in off-grid communities
Mark Hopkins, Director General, Natural Resources and Environment Branch
Eric Magnuson, Director General, Strategic Initiatives
Pan-Canadian Summit on Remote Diesel Communities, January 17th, 2017

2. Context
Energy security and sustainability is a fundamental building block for community health and socio-economic well-being.
Reducing diesel fuel use will lower greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollutants, reduce risks and costs of spills and contaminated sites, contribute to building capacity and jobs, and support economic development, local revenue creation, and energy self-reliance.
Communities most reliant on diesel fuel are also most affected by climate change and lack the capital to independently manage a shift to renewables.
Northern and Indigenous communities, governments, and organizations have the primary role in setting direction, decision making, and moving to action The federal government is a partner in helping to achieve this.

3. The federal government supports a broad range of clean energy activities in remote, Indigenous, and Northern communities
Success requires the combination of governance, technology, people, and capital
Communities and industrial sites: Planning and construction, capacity building and training
Federal buildings and DND facilities: Greening government operations
Deployment of renewables
Housing and other buildings
Transportation
Appliances and lighting
Codes and standards
Efficiency
Renewable energy system integration
Clean tech innovation
Energy efficiency/ housing and other buildings
Capacity building, training, and technical advice
Data strategy, remote community database
Research, development, and demonstration (RD&D)
CanNor – Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
CMHC – Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
DND – Department of National Defence
DRDC – Defence Research and Development Canada
ECCC – Environment and Climate Change Canada
ESDC – Employment and Social Development Canada
INAC – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
INFC – Infrastructure Canada
ISED – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
NRC – National Research Council of Canada
NRCan – Natural Resources Canada
POLAR – Polar Knowledge Canada
PSPC – Public Services and Procurement Canada
Stats Can – Statistics Canada

4. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)
A key element of INAC’s mandate is to support the development of healthier and more sustainable communities. Recent commitments made by the Government on reconciliation and climate change reinforce this mandate.
INAC:
is a central resource for Indigenous communities and organizations
provides funding to support infrastructure projects; complex multi-year initiatives; planning and capacity building activities; policy research; and economic development
facilitates coordination and alignment of federal government plans, programs and activities
provides information to support decision-making on policies and legislation
Energy security means equal access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy.

5. INAC’s Clean Energy Programming
Although INAC has a different role in the South and in the North in supporting communities to reduce diesel fuel use for electricity and heating, programming across INAC is aiming to:
Support appropriate technologies and capacity development so communities can sustainably manage clean energy solutions
Build on existing and developing provincial/territorial plans and coordinate efforts across federal departments
Develop a practical measurement framework to track and report on progress

6. In the North
For INAC, Canada’s North is generally understood as including both the territories and regions of the Inuit homeland (Inuit Nunangat).
There are fewer reserves in the North. Aside from federal responsibilities stemming from modern treaties, the majority of programs and services for Northerners (including Indigenous) are provided by the territorial governments.
Comprehensive land claim agreements provide Indigenous groups with modern government structures, and increased responsibility to manage their own affairs, such as jurisdiction over governance, lands, and resources.
With respect to clean energy, INAC plays a supporting role by providing project-based funding, and has a key role to play in supporting federal coordination on energy in the North.
Image credit: The Gordon Foundation,

7. North – Plan and Timeline
INAC has been mandated to develop a plan and timeline for deploying renewable energy and efficiency alternatives to diesel in the North, in close collaboration with Northern stakeholders.
To date INAC has gathered input through various regional workshops and meetings, and is continuing to work in collaboration with regional stakeholders.
The plan and timeline will:
centre on regional/ territorial plans and governance
frame the level of ambition (outcomes and impacts) that can be achieved
improve coordination of federal activities and investments in the North

8. In the South
Some 633 communities occupy more than 3.5 million hectares of land across Canada. The land base continues to grow as claims are settled and land is added to reserve.
120 communities rely on diesel for heating; 40 of these communities are not connected to the electricity grid and rely heavily on diesel for electricity generation.
There are over 2000 contaminated sites on First Nation reserves; 70% are caused by diesel contamination. The overall current liability for contaminated sites in the South is currently estimated at $458 million.

9. In the South
Unlike the territories, provincial governments have limited jurisdiction to provide programs and services to Indigenous peoples located on reserves.
INAC funds the delivery of on-reserve programs such as housing and community infrastructure. For the most part, these programs are delivered directly by First Nations communities.
INAC also directly supports programs like the Contaminated Sites on Reserve Program, which works to reduce or eliminate risk to human health and the environment through the effective risk management or remediation of contaminated sites on reserve (including contamination from diesel transportation, distribution, and usage).

10. Federally Supported Diesel Electric Communities
There are 40 First Nation communities currently not fully under the provincial jurisdiction with respect to their diesel generated electricity systems, and where INAC has a role, including the funding of diesel electricity generation infrastructure.

11. South – Electrification Strategy
INAC has undertaken to develop a Strategy that would lead to improved electricity servicing and to reducing or, where appropriate, eliminating diesel generated electricity in the 40 communities.
Strategy Objectives
Sustainable and continuous decrease of diesel fuel consumption
Satisfy service level requirements in underserved communities
Engagement of First Nation communities, through capacity building, training and education initiatives, to identify energy opportunities
Support economic development, infrastructure plans and greenhouse gas reductions by leveraging clean energy alternatives
Facilitate and support the transition to affordable sources of energy
Promote the transfer of energy systems management and services to provincially regulated and licensed electrical service providers
Engagement and development of a partnership with electric utilities and other relevant private sector partners

12. South – Strategy Application
Support communities through planning efforts to determine baseline energy requirements and consider all possible alternative energy sources through energy audits and plans
Consideration of energy conservation efforts (i.e. demand-side management)
Identify all viable alternatives available to a community to meet its energy needs
Development of a business case which considers viable alternatives and leads to the selection of projects which meets community need in terms of service standard and reliability, while also reducing or eliminating diesel use
Facilitate the transformation from diesel generated electricity to the selected energy system for each community

13. Acknowledgements
Thank you to the Council of the Federation and the Provincial-Territorial Task Force on Reducing Diesel in Remote Communities for inviting the Federal Government’s participation in developing an action plan towards affordable clean energy for off-grid communities.
Thank you to the Government of Manitoba for organizing this event.